Legend of a Thief: Ocarina Of Time
by Mc. Buff
Summary: A delinquent, Link scoffs at the idea he could actually be the legendary "Hero of Time". Seeing that he could use this to his advantage, however, he goes along with it, unaware of the damage this could bring to Hyrule's future.
1. Beginning Of Fear

**The Legend of a Thief:**** Ocarina of Time**

**Chapter 1**

* * *

_I didn't like the Kokiri forest. __Not really. __Every Kokiri felt like the forest was their only home. _

_I felt it was just a forest._

_I'm a Kokiri. I'm not supposed to grow up. I'm not supposed to have dreams about castles and a green man. I'm not even supposed to want to leave the forest. __I'm also not supposed to be a thief._

_That doesn't stop me though._

* * *

Today I slept in. Judging by the amount of light entering my tree-house, it was probably around noon. I sighed. If it was that late I'll probably be expected out soon. My house was very messy. There were sheets all over the ground from my bed and it was dusty. I hadn't really swept the floor or dusted in days, which probably wasn't a good idea. I'd been busy though. You need a lot of time if your going to plan the perfe-

"_Liiiink_! Get out of bed! The day is going quick and you still have a job to do!"

Saria.

What a freak.

Why is she always checking in on me? I slowly rose out of bed and looked at the doorway.

Do I _really_ want to go out there? No.

Do I have a choice? Nope.

I let out a deep breath before I yelled, "Coming, Saria!"

I was about to look for my boots and tunic when I realized I was already in them. Wow, I must have been really tired to sleep in my clothes. Well, it was a pretty rough night. Seeing as I already had some clothes on, I walked out, holding my hand up to block the sun, and looked down.

Saria was waiting there with her usual smile, and her bright, green hair. It wasn't a disgusting green, but it still didn't really look right. Her hair matched the forest, and apparently, so did her clothes. The only color you could ever find her in was green, and that wasn't even the strangest thing about her. She was over a century old, yet she still looked 12 years of age. I didn't really understand how that worked, but according to the other Kokiri, it didn't really matter.

I was literally only 11 years old. Well, next week I'll turn 12, but even so, I'm still the youngest Kokiri.

I turned my attention away from my upcoming birthday and focused on what I had to do today. I slid down the ladder in front of my tree-house and walked over to Saria. She was fidgeting with her hands nervously but she kept her gaze fixed on me.

I returned her smile and said, "Hey, Saria." It wasn't very enthusiastic and I reprimanded myself mentally for that. She didn't seem to notice it though.

"Hey, Link. You didn't go to the meeting last night, are you okay?" I expected a question like that and I had had a lie prepared for her that would make perfect sense, but for some reason words escaped me.

"I...ummm...fell...out of my tree." Saria looked at me questioningly.

"You _fell_ out of your tree?" I nodded slowly, hoping the pathetic look would help sell the story. Although it didn't look like she believed me, she still went along with it.

"Are you alright? It must have been a pretty nasty fall to have stopped you from coming."

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was nothing a good night's sleep couldn't cure." She smiled.

"Good. Well then, now that that's been covered I have to tell you that you got stuck with the hunting position again this week." I winced.

I hated hunting.

She laughed. "I figured that was how you would react. Just to make your day easier I brought you my hunting bow." She reached into a pouch she kept on her belt and pulled out the bow, which was way bigger than the bag itself. She handed it to me and I looked at her incredulously.

"I still need to figure out how you do that."

"It's my little secret. Maybe when you turn 12, I'll finally tell you!" I smiled weakly. _Don't remind me._

"Cheer up, Link. When you're 12, you'll finally be a full grown Kokiri with many happy years ahead of you!"

That was the thing.

I didn't want to stop growing at twelve. I wanted to be different from the other Kokiri. They were...I don't really know how to describe what I felt about them. I wanted to be big and strong. Not five foot and scrawny.

I looked at her before I responded, "Yeah, I guess your right." She smiled at me sweetly.

"Well, you should probably head out now. I mean, if you don't, you won't get back before dark and I wouldn't suggest being out there past dark." I returned her smile as sweetly as I could.

"Yeah. Thanks for letting me borrow your bow and...well, I guess that's it. I'll head off now. Bye, Saria"

"Bye, Link." I turned away from her, bow in hand, and walked away. After a moment, or two, of walking I heard Saria walk away in a different direction. I always did have good hearing. Probably because of my huge ears.

I walked on into the Kokiri village. While walking I looked at the bow Saria let me borrow. It had been a gift from Mido, the village leader, to Saria. Mido has a thing for her and apparently he thought giving her a hunting bow would win her heart. What an idiot. She hates killing and violence. Why would she want a hunting bow?

Besides his thing for her, he also seemed to have a thing with me. Not in the way he does with Saria, but more like a hating my guts kinda thing. I don't really blame him though. I am a bit different. Out of all the Kokiri, which isn't that many to begin with, I'm the only one who doesn't have a fairy. I don't really think of it as a big deal but according to Mido since I don't have a fairy, I'm less of a Kokiri now.

There is also another reason Mido doesn't like me. I broke into his house one day to...well, _rob_him. I was supposed to have an hour-window to steal whatever I wanted, but things didn't go according to plan. I was picking a lock on the chest that held Mido's most precious possession...whatever it is. When I was done, I began to open the chest, only to hear Mido's indignant cry. He was standing there in the doorway, his hand still on the knob, frozen and spluttering in shock at me. He looked as if he were about to have a heart-attack. I wasn't doing to well myself. I was freaked out because that was the first and _only_ time I'd ever been caught. He started yelling at me, telling me to stop what I was doing. As scared as I was, I did the only thing that came naturally to me at the moment.

I knocked him out.

I moved quickly, hitting him in the stomach and then punching him in the head. He fell unconscious and I immediately began to cover my tracks. There was no way I could continue my theft because if I did I wouldn't have any deniability. Everyone would know that I stole from him. Not something I would enjoy. If I didn't take it and just left if there it would all be chalked up to Mido making up a stupid story. Having to give up the theft annoyed me, but I knew it was for the best. Mido now hates my guts, which I personally don't mind, and he is considered, by many, to be the village idiot.

The thought of Mido's stupidity made me feel warm inside and I began to be in a better mood. At least, until I thought of my impending hunting trip. I sighed. It was probably best if I prepared and left now. I looked back toward my tree-house. No, I don't need anything from there, I think. Since the Kokiri assign different hunters each week no one really has their own hunting equipment. They just keep the hunting equipment in Mido's house and he lets the week's hunter go and pick it up. I didn't really want to, but I guess it was time to go to Mido's house.

Mido's house was near the entrance of the lost woods. I had to go across the Kokiri village to get there, but that was okay since the village wasn't that big to begin with. There were a couple of markets in the village and houses that the other villagers lived in. It really wasn't that impressive. There was a small body of water that ran right in the front of the trail that led to the great Deku Tree himself. Very few people had ever been summoned to the great Deku tree. I knew that among the Kokiri the Great Deku Tree was almost considered a god, but he was definitely considered to be the father of the Kokiri. I didn't understand how that worked. No one had ever explained it to me. Must be one of the disadvantages of not being a full Kokiri.

Mido's house was in view now. As I approached it I noticed a Kokiri tending to Mido's yard. Getting rid of weeds, planting flowers, trying to make his evil lair look good. I felt bad for him, but I guess everyone has to earn their keep. Of course, that might seem hypocritical since I steal, but whatever.

I got into hearing range of him and called out, "Hey!"

He looked up at me and replied, "Huh?"

I looked down at what he was working on and then responded. "Pulling weeds, eh?"

"Yeah, it sucks but at least I get paid. You know, come to think about it, I didn't see you at last night's meeting. Where were you?"

I rolled my eyes. It was the second time someone asked me that and I was already tired of it. "I fell out of my tree."

He just stared before responding, "Uh-huh."

I didn't want to continue the pointless conversation so I got to the point. "Is Mido in there?"

"No, he left in a hurry today and I don't really know why. Why? Do you need him?"

"You were at last night's meeting. Who got assigned hunting duty?"

"Umm...Oh! You were!"

"Yes, I was. Do you have the hunting equipment ready for me or do I have to wait for the village idiot to come back?" He stared at me as if trying to comprehend what I was saying. I was probably being a bit mean to him, but I was in a bad mood again, so I didn't care.

Finally, he responded, saying, "Ummm, you could probably just walk in and get it."

I nodded to him before I said, "Thank you."

"Your welcome." I left before any more of my time could be taken up by him. The door was unlocked so I just walked in. Much to my surprise, the hunting equipment was all packed and in a backpack waiting for me. I picked it up and took off in the direction of the Lost Woods.

I had to climb a bit to reach it, since it was right above Mido's house, but overall it's pretty easy to reach the Lost Woods. The name is a bit misleading, but only a bit. There is really only one area of the Lost Woods that you can really get lost in. The rest is just like any other part of the forest. The area that you can get lost in is large enough that it's understandable that they named it the Lost Woods. I'd never venture into the that part of the Lost Woods, but there is one Kokiri who seems to be able to manage it. Saria. She has an unusually keen sense of direction along with a freaky connection with the forest that seemed to allow her to navigate that part of the woods perfectly.

Well, lost part of the Lost Woods aside, the other sections of the forest were quite easy to navigate. I knew a particular part of the woods really well, which I claimed as my own hunting grounds. I was entering that section now.

It usually didn't take long for me to find tracks in the woods, but I couldn't seem to find any now. I continued on into the woods undeterred. I was passing a small pond and paused. It had been a few hours and I was thirsty, so I did the obvious thing and decided to take a drink. As I neared the pond I finally found the thing I had been looking for: tracks. An animal had been here, within the hour from the looks of it. I needed to track it now, or I might lose it. Forgetting the water, I immediately took off in the direction of the tracks. I readied an arrow while running so that I wouldn't have to later. After a while of following the tracks, they suddenly veered hard to the left. The following imprints were deeper. Was it running? If it was, what was it running from?

Well, if it was running that meant I needed to pick up the pace. I started to jog at a moderate pace, trying to keep up with the tracks. The tracks were getting fresher and fresher. I slowed down a little. I didn't want to surprise the creature and scare it again. The woods were clearing, and I was entering a meadow. I stopped myself just before I entered, though. Good thing I did, too. The creature I was chasing, a deer, was feeding on plant life in the middle of the meadow.

I smiled before aiming my arrow. The wind wasn't blowing and the deer was in the perfect position for the perfect shot. After a few more seconds of adjusting the arrow, I let it go. It flew straight and true, until it hit the deer right in the heart. It let out a light shriek before falling down and dying. I immediately ran up to the deer and smiled. Clean shot.

The deer had died quickly, something I was happy for. I didn't really want it to suffer. It was bad enough it's life had to end now. I prepared it for it's trip back to the Kokiri village. It took a few hours and it was already well into the night by the time I finished. The deer's corpse was wrapped up tight in a tarp made, ironically, of deer skin.

I began to drag it back to the village. That would take hours meaning that I would probably get back by morning. The thought of dragging it all the way back to the village discouraged me, to say the least. Especially since, come to think about it, I hadn't eaten all day. I reprimanded myself for not thinking about that while I had been preparing for the hunting trip. Mido may supply the hunting equipment, but he did not in any way provide food for the hunters.

Putting aside my discomfort, I continued on my way. Night in the Lost Woods was pretty boring. Nothing exciting ever happened in the woods. I shook my head, clearing away those thoughts. While doing a job this boring, I probably shouldn't think about how boring it was.

Suddenly the air around me felt cold. It made me shiver and feel something I couldn't quite put my finger on. I shrugged it off as best I could and kept walking. No matter how hard I tried though, it stayed with me.

A little while later, I reached the pond where I first found the deer's tracks. I paused to take a break since I'd been hauling a carcass around for a while now. I saw the pond, glistening in the moonlight. It was tempting to take a drink from it since I hadn't eaten or drunken today.

I thought about it for a second, and said to myself, "Why not?" As I walked over to the pond something inside me told me to just forget the break, and keep going. Another part of me just wanted to relax for a few minutes, and take a drink. The darkness emanated around me. It must be making me paranoid, I thought. There can't be any harm in taking one little drink, could there?

I had reached the pond now. I leaned over to get some water when the feeling suddenly escalated. It almost stopped me from continuing, but I didn't want this feeling to make me chicken out of getting a drink. How ridiculous would that be! I continued on and felt the water hit my lips. It was so refreshing and cold, that I immediately forgot all my previous worries. It didn't last long though.

The feeling was back now, but worse. It screamed at me so bad I instinctively jumped sideways. I landed badly but I soon learned I made the right move. Where I had once been, there was now a sword. That feeling inside me began screaming again.

Before my eyes were two things I could have never imagined. There were two skeletons, clad in body armor, and carrying a sword and shield. They had red eyes that could only be described as cold, and evil. They were fixated on me. I finally understood what had been making me feel the way I did. Staring into their eyes now, I knew what had been bothering me this whole time. It was blood lust. Their blood lust was so strong it would have sent chills down anybody's spine.

The one that had struck out with his sword was lifting it up again. I was still frozen, but I was determined to not let it keep me from defending myself. I summoned the courage to pick myself up off the ground and take an arrow out of my quiver. I had let go of the bow when I jumped to the side and now it was on the on the other side of me In order to get to it I would have to figure out a way past the two skeletons.

They didn't give me much of a chance to think anything through. They charged at me with great speed. I braced myself for their approach, trying to find the strength to face them without wetting myself.

The first one came and swung towards my midsection, which was quite a feat, considering he was almost twice my height. I jumped backwards, barely dodging the sword. He followed up that swing with a jab to my chest. I sidestepped it, and brought the arrow I was holding up into his own chest.

Much to my dismay, the arrow, when it made contact with him, broke in half. It wasn't hard enough to penetrate the skeleton. As far as I could tell, it only annoyed him.

The sword came around and this time I had to duck. I needed an escape plan. There was no way that, with the weapons I had, I would be able to beat whatever these things were, that were attacking me.

The attacks were coming more furiously now. I had to keep my full attention on one skeleton's attack, just to keep from being hit.

That was my mistake.

While I had my full attention focused on that one skeleton, I didn't notice the other skeleton attacking me from the side. Well, I _did_ notice, but it was already too late by then.

I turned to face him, but I was too slow. The sword cut across my chest. The pain was white hot, and I screamed. It was so agonizing it was hard to keep standing.

I backed up, trying to keep my balance. I didn't know if my head was playing tricks on me or not, but I thought I could hear faint laughter. Coming from the skeletons?

An anger boiled inside me. An anger I couldn't control. No, an anger I didn't _want_ to control. I wanted to lash out, to kill those stupid monsters. I would have attacked them, but my stupid wound wouldn't allow me to do anything. My head was feeling woozy, due to the loss of blood, and I couldn't keep my balance any longer. I fell backwards, and into the pond. The last thing I saw before blacking out was the water swirling around me, and slowly turning into an uninviting blood red.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****This is my first fan-fiction story. Any constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Beta'd by SCARREDxFORxLIFE.**


	2. Vows

**The Legend of a Thief:**** Ocarina of Time**

**Chapter 2**

* * *

There was only darkness. Were my eyes closed or was I now blind? I couldn't tell. I couldn't feel much of anything, really, except for something warm encasing my body. I...did...what happened?

I could hear voices now. A girl and a boy. No, a girl and two boys. I couldn't make out what they were saying and it kind of worried me. After a few minutes of feeling like a vegetable I started to gain some strength. I realized I wasn't blind and forced my eyes open. It was a little too bright and it took awhile to get totally adjusted to it. Once I was though I could easily make out where I was. I was in my house. How did I get here?

Looking to the right I quickly found my answer. Saria was standing there along with Mido and one of the know-it-all brothers. Saria obviously found me after my...attack. My hearing was beginning to get back to normal and I could finally make out what they were saying.

"What do you mean you let him get to the Great Deku Tree!" That was Saria. To state the obvious, she seemed upset about something. Mido was standing there with an annoyed look on his face. The know-it-all brother was just standing there with a look that said, "I don't want to be here anymore."

"There was nothing I could do Saria. Believe me, if I could have stopped him I would have. Truth is, even if all the Kokiri had teamed up against him we still would have lost. And to top it off, he wasn't even alone! Those monsters were fierce by themselves! You weren't there for the full battle. It was brutal. I have wounded Kokiri to deal with along with the guilt of allowing such a man near the Great Deku Tree, so don't even come to me like it was my fault! Where were you Saria! Chasing after Link?! What makes him so important that you would leave you own brothers and sisters by themselves with monsters like that?!" Saria looked a little ashamed but at the same time she looked like she was going to punch Mido any second now.

"I'm sorry I had to leave you Mido, truly, I am. But Link is a Kokiri too! I couldn't just leave him out there! You treat him like he isn't one of us and why? Just because he doesn't have a stupid fairy!" She looked up at her own fairy. "No offense."

"None taken," replied her fairy. She turned her attention back to Mido.

"Or is it because no one believes that stupid story you told everyone about Link stealing stuff from you?" Mido looked insulted.

"It is not stupid! That idiot tried to steal my most precious possession! I'm telling you the truth! He is a little thief!" Saria scoffed.

" Yeah, Link's a thief and I'm a guy. Mido, no one will ever believe you. Just give it up. Link isn't like that." Mido just rolled his eyes. I was amazed Saria defended me so vigorously. I'd never done anything for her. I was never nice to her, except for when she was nice to me. I didn't understand that girl. What does she see in me that not even I can see?

They just continued arguing. Soon enough the know-it-all brother decided it would be best to leave and just did. No one noticed, except me of course. After a while it started to get tiring listening to them argue so I forced myself up. Or, at least I tried to. When I tried a pain, reminiscent to the pain I felt when I had gotten wounded, surged through my chest. I winced involuntarily and fell back in my bed with a grunt. I cursed inwardly. I had forgotten about that injury. My movement was enough though. They noticed it and immediately stopped arguing. Saria in particular.

When she noticed the movement she murmured something under her breath and immediatly ran toward me. Mido just rolled his eyes and started walking toward the door.

" I have things to do. See ya, Saria." With that Mido graced us with his absence. That left me alone with Saria. I didn't mind that too much. She wasn't that annoying. She didn't pay any attention to Mido leaving but instead she focused her attention on me. She was on her knees looking over me with a concerned look on her face.

" Are you okay Link? You shouldn't try to get up. Your not ready for that yet. Get some rest." I knew she was probably right but I needed some answers.

"Saria, what exactly happened?" Listening to her and Mido's conversation gave me a small idea of what happened but I needed some more.

"Well, none of the kokiri really know what happened. Some green man came into the forest demanding to see the Great Deku Tree. When we refused, he attacked us. I didn't stay for the whole battle but I bet it didn't last long. They were...powerful. I don't really know how else to describe them. I needed to know that you were okay, so I snuck out of the village." She shuddered before she continued. "When I found you, you were a bloody mess. Your body was floating, dead looking, in the water. There was so much blood. I thought for sure that you were dead. I ran into the water and pulled you body out. I stayed with you for what must have been an hour before Mido came with a few more of the other Kokiri. We got your body back here and did our best to patch you up." I didn't know what to say. Saria looked like she was about to cry, the memories were so painful. Had my near-death experience really hurt her that much? I didn't want to think about it so I continued my interrogation.

" How bad is it?" She looked up at me and smiled.

"That's probably the best thing that happened to me this night. After we checked you out it was determined that your quite a fighter. You are recovering very quickly. It was even predicted you will be fully recovered by the end of the week. I don't know how that is possible, but obviously The Great Deku Tree has been looking out for you." She put her hand on my forehead. Having her hand hand on me like that made me uncomfortable. I would usually just push her hand away but I didn't want to be insensitive to what she just went through. I didn't want to sit through this though either, so I faked being in pain.

"Ahhhhh!" Her face became concerned and she removed her hand.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think I'm still a little sensitive."

"Well, take it easy then. You shouldn't get out of bed at all until your fully recovered. Okay?" I didn't want to but I nodded in agreement anyway. She seemed satisfied with that. An uncomfortable silence ensued after that. To avoid that I continued talking.

"How bad are the other Kokiri?"

"Honestly, there not that bad. Just a few cuts and bruises. Kokiri aren't a warrior-like people so we kinda gave up easily, I guess. You got the worst of it."

"That's good. Well, for them. Is it already morning?"

"Almost. It's been a long night."

"Have you even slept at all?"

"No, I haven't. I've been too busy."

"You should sleep. I'll be fine, thanks to you."

"Really? Are you sure? I can stay."

"No, you shouldn't. Go and get some sleep." She smiled.

"Okay, Link. I'll be back to check on you when I wake up." I smiled back.

"Thank you, Saria." Then she was gone and I was alone. It had been what I wanted, yet, I wasn't so sure anymore. Something was bothering me. I couldn't place my finger on it though. I guess, I wouldn't figure it out now, because soon enough I was sound asleep.

* * *

It was evening by the time I woke up. I was still alone. On the wall next to me there was a note from Saria saying that she had passed by but I was asleep so she didn't wake me. That was fine with me.

I layed there for hours. While laying there I thought about the fight I had not too long ago. I thought about how stupid I had been. That's what had been bothering me. I had been beaten too easily. I was...afraid.

Fear. That's what I had felt. I don't remember ever feeling fear that intense before. I've never feared for my life until that night. It made me feel...weak. I'd always felt in control until that moment.

Fear.

Fear almost killed me that night, not the monsters. If I hadn't been so afraid I wouldn't have made that mistake. I wouldn't be laying here right now if I hadn't felt fear.

Thinking about that I felt the same anger I had felt ealrlier tonight. My heart was racing, but I tried to control it. I tried to calm myself down and when I finally did, I made a vow.

"I won't let fear control me. Never again will it paralyze me. Next time, I will cut down my enemies mercilessly. Courage will be my way and I will not deviate from it." My words seemed to echo around me. I let them fill my ears while I closed my eyes and let sleep take me again.

* * *

The rest of the week went by slow. After my own little self reflection I began to plan my next robbery. I had lots of time on my hand so that seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Choosing a victim was kind of hard, but I finally decided that I would try Mido again. It's been awhile since I tried last and even though he hasn't forgotten about it he probably won't expect me to try again.

I didn't have as much time to plan as I thought I would though. It seemed that visitors were coming quite frequently now. I'd almost seen everybody in the village by now. In fact, the only one that hadn't come to visit me was Mido.

I felt my lips curl into a smile. Maybe it was time I visited him, instead.

As the days went by I got stronger and stronger. When I was alone, besides planning my upcoming robbery, I also did various exercises to keep my muscle strength up. At first I started with small aerobic stretches, but then I moved to strenuous exercises like push-ups and pull-ups. By the sixth day I was feeling very good. So good, in fact, that I thought about getting out of my house and getting some fresh air. I hadn't been outside in almost a week now and I was beginning to feel suffocated.

Then a thought crossed my mind that shouldn't have. My birthday was tomorrow. That immediatly put me in a bad mood. I walked over to my window and peered out. It was dark out. I was going to go out but now I was too depressed. I pushed out depressing thoughts and moved back to my bed.

Next weekend I would rob Mido and finally achieve what I couldn't all that time ago. That thought eased my depression but not completly. I continued to stare at the ceiling before I fell asleep, dreading the moment I would wake up.

* * *

I was at a castle now. The sky was dark and rain pounded mercilessly upon my face. The green grass that covered the field I was in was nearly endless. I turned around and in the distance I could see a large settlement, which layed upon a hill, but was covered by a rock wall. Hearing the whine of grinding metal, and the creaking of old wood, I turned and faced the entrance to the castle. There was a long wooden door that began a slow descent, opening right before me. I didn't understand what was happening. Was I dreaming?

Once the door was completely open, a white horse came running out. It ran straight for me. Once I realized it wasn't going to stop I jumped to the side barely escaping it. I watched as they continued to put distance between them and the castle. It was like they didn't even notice me. After a while they fell out of sight. Not being able to see them anymore, I felt alone. Turning my attention back to the castle entrance, I saw something that made my skin crawl.

No longer was I alone at the castle entrance. Now at the bridge there was a green man sitting on a horse. Staring at me. His eyes were a sickly yellow and seemed to pierce into me.

We stared at each other for a while until I began to hear a high-pitched, annoying, squeal that some-what resembled a voice.

It said to me, "Hello, Link! Wake up! The Great Deku Tree wants to talk to you!"

"Link, get up!" I began to feel the rain pouring down upon me less and less and it soon felt like I wasn't really there anymore.

"Hey, C'mon! Can Hyrule's destiny really depend on such a lazy boy?"

Finally my eyes opened and what I saw then, startled me more than the green man in my dreams had. I was staring right at a fairy.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****This is my first fan-fiction story. Any constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Beta'd by SCARREDxFORxLIFE.**


	3. Annoying Fairy

**The Legend of a Thief:**** Ocarina of Time**

**Chapter 3**

* * *

It peered down at me and I returned it's stare. I blinked a few times, expecting it to disappear every time I re-opened my eyes.

It was still there.

I lifted myself into a sitting position and continued to stare at it.

"You finally woke up! I'm Navi the fairy. The Great Deku Tree asked me to be your partner from now on. Nice to meet you!" The fairy, Navi, or whatever, had spoken all four of those sentences without even breathing. It paused a second, as if waiting for me to take all that in, before continuing. "The Great Deku Tree has summoned you! So let's get going, right now!" It turned away from me and flew towards the exit with great speed. I didn't follow it though. It stopped itself from going outside and turned back to me. "What's wrong? Come on, we have to go see The Great Deku Tree now!" I figured it was about time I say something to my unexpected guest.

"No."

"What?!"

"I don't want to see the Deku Tree. It's probably overrated." I tilted my head to the side. "What are you anyway? Some lame birthday present from the Deku Tree? Is he trying to honor my twelfth birthday or something? No, thank you. I don't want to have a day I've loathed since I was a kid, be honored in _any_ way. Just go back to where you came from, and leave me alone." It seemed to float there for a few seconds before responding.

"Why do you loath your birthday? Most Kokiri can't wait for a day like this."

"It's none of your business."

"If we're going to be partners from now on, I think you should be able to open up to me." That sentence ticked me off for some unknown reason.

"Didn't you just listen? Let me spell it out for you. _I-don't-want-a-fairy-partner-thing-or-whatever!_"

It just laughed. That laugh grated at my nerves.

I clenched my teeth. "Why are you laughing?"

"Didn't you listen to me? Let me spell it out for _you_, since that seems to be the only way you'll understand _me_. _I-am-going-to-be-your-partner-from-now-on. The-Great-Deku-Tree-has-mandated-it. So-**get-with-the-program**!_" The harshness of it's voice surprised me, but I wasn't going to lose to a fairy.

"I don't have to listen to this." I got up from the bed and headed for the exit. I heard it chuckle and mutter something while flying up to me. I got out of my tree-house and went down the ladder. Waiting for me at the bottom of my ladder was none other than Saria. Her mouth fell wide open when she saw the bright light floating next to me.

"Link, you have a fairy now!?! I'm so happy for you!" She ran toward me and wrapped me in her warm embrace. It made me uncomfortable, but I endured it. I didn't really like physical contact. She pulled away from me and looked me in the eyes. "I truly am happy for you, Link. Except, with such a great gift, I feel that it will make mine less special."

"Don't worry, Saria." I looked up at the fairy with an annoyed look on my face. "No matter what you give me, it will _always_ be more special than _that_ fairy." She took it as a compliment and smiled, blushing a little. "Is that why you came? Are you going to give me a gift now?" I asked.

"Yes. You know how last week you said that you would figure out how to do that little trick I always do? Well, today I'm going to teach it to you." I smiled.

"Really?"

"Yep." She pulled off her belt the pouch that had been taunting me with it's secrets for years. "Okay Link. Here, take it." I took it in my hands and gave her a quizzical look. "Don't just look at me Link. Reach in there." I put my hand in the pouch and felt...nothing. It was empty.

"Ummm...Saria, it's empty." She giggled.

"It's supposed to be. You didn't do it right. Here, give it back to me." I let her have it back. "Now, I know that it was empty to _you_, but in reality, there were 10 deku nuts and deku sticks. The trick to getting them out is to imagine what it is that you want, and then reach in. As long as the item that you are imagining is already in the bag, you should be able to pull it out." To demonstrate she reached in and pulled out two deku nuts. She placed them back in before she continued. "You try now Link." Once the pouch was in my hands again I imagined a deku stick. Then I reached in and to my surprise, I felt something. I grabbed hold of it and pulled. A second later, out came a deku stick, even though it was physically impossible to pull something that long out of something so small. It was unbelievable.

"Wow. Saria, that's awesome! How does it work?" Saria grinned.

"It's magic." I laughed.

"No kidding. I think this is the first time I've seen magic like this. Where'd you get it?"

"From the Great Deku Tree. He gave it to me as a gift, but I want you to have it. Something tells me that you could probably use it." I laughed inwardly. This was the perfect gift for a thief. Now, I can carry a nearly unlimited amount of things in a compacted space. I put on an understanding look.

"Are you sure, Saria? It was a gift from the Great Deku Tree. I'm sure it's very important to you."

"Don't worry about it, Link. I never found much use for it anyway. I want you to have it." I looked her in the eyes.

"Thank you, Saria. I really love it."

"Ummmm, I'm sorry to interrupt your wonderful little chat here, but don't you remember, Link? The Great Deku Tree has summoned you!" Annoying little fairy. I turned my attention away from Saria and back to Navi. I was about to respond, but Saria beat me to it.

"Oh, I'm sorry, little fairy. What's your name?"

"Navi."

"Well, Navi, I won't let myself take up any more of your time." She turned back to me. "Link, if the Great Deku Tree has summoned you it must be very important. You should get going now. I'll be over at your house setting up the party. Okay?" I responded with an aggravated smile.

"No problem, Saria. I'll just get going now." I turned and left. She stayed and watched me go before heading into my home. Once we were out of hearing range, the fairy flew ahead and faced me.

"Are you ready to go now? By the way, why can't you be more like Saria? She's polite and also, she's not a _boy_." Navi flew a little closer to me before she continued. "Saria also has good personal hygiene. Have you smelled yourself lately?"

"I'm _not_going to the Deku Tree. I don'tcare if he summoned me, and can you stop talking? Do you listen to yourself? You're annoying." Navi laughed. If it laughed like that again, I was going beat it to death.

"I'll continue to be annoying until you get your lazy butt over to the Great Deku Tree! Besides, do you listen to _yourself?_ Well, I guess if you did, you wouldn't talk the way you do. I mean, it's like you have a stick up your-"

"Shut up!" I growled. I _really_ didn't want her to finish that sentence.

"I mean _seriously_, all you do is whine and groan. Get over it." I decided to just ignore the stupid thing and continue on my way. It didn't seem to care though. It just kept going on and on.

Thinking of a way to get out of going to the Deku Tree and managing to fool the other Kokiri was difficult, but I decided that I would just pretend that I _did_go to the Deku Tree. Saria and the others would probably buy it. Well, if I was going to do that, I needed to be gone the appropriate amount of time. How long did a usual summoning to the Deku Tree last? I tried to figure it out, but the fairy's stupid, high-pitched and _very,_ annoying voice kept throwing me off. I decided to forget it and go into the Lost Woods and just spend a few hours there.

As I was walking through the woods I became amazed at how the fairy's voice kept penetrating my defenses. Usually, if I wanted to, I could block out anything, but this fairy was _really_ giving me a challenge. I couldn't make out what it was saying anymore. It was just talking gibberish now. Had it run out of things to say? Well, if it did, it would probably give up soon. At least, I _hoped_ it would.

The day dragged on, and even though I had only been listening to the fairy talk for half an hour it felt like it had been hours. This fairy was driving me crazy!

When I had finally had enough, I attacked it.

I swung my fist hoping to nail it, but by the time my hand had reached it the fairy wasn't there anymore.

"You'll have to be quicker than that if your going to hit me." I turned around and there it was. I gritted my teeth, and tried again. It easily dodged my attack and laughed. I kept going though. I _really_ wanted it to die now.

It must have lasted for about 15 minutes before I finally tripped over myself and hit the ground. The fairy busted up laughing. I growled.

"You know, Link, you don't have to humiliate yourself like this. Just come with me to the Great Deku Tree and I'll be quieter." I gave her a dark look.

"I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to lose to a fairy!" Navi just chuckled and made a motion that somewhat resembled a shrug.

"Suit yourself, and by the way, this _fairy _has a name! It's Navi."

"Whatever." I charged it again. I heard Navi sigh before she dodged my attack. The fairy flew itself over to a group of trees. I followed quickly and once again threw myself at the fairy. The fairy waited till the last minute before dodging, leaving me flying at a tree. I couldn't change direction in time and I ran, head-first into the tree. That was the first time in a few days that I hurt myself. The blow knocked the wind out of me and I fell back on the floor.

"You better watch that anger of yours, Link. If you hadn't been so angry, you wouldn't have ran into that tree. Keep a clear head. If you had had a clear head you probably would have figured out a way to get at me." I slowly got up and looked at her. There was something different about the way she spoke to me then. No longer was there any harshness or jesting in it's voice. It was sincere now.

No matter how much I didn't want to, I had to agree with it's statement. I had been blind-sided by anger and it had made me sloppy. I took in a deep breath and then let it go.

"So, if I go see the Deku Tree, you'll be quiet?"

"Quieter," the fairy corrected. Then continued with, "and yes." I sighed.

"I guess it won't kill me. Sure, I'll go see the Deku Tree." The fairy laughed.

"Let's go then." Navi led me out of the Lost Woods and back into the Kokiri village. Most of the Kokiri were gathered around my house, obviously waiting for me to return to my home, so the party could start. Walking over to the pathway that led to the Deku Tree, I began to feel curiosity as to why he would summon me. I'd never met him before and now, all of a sudden, he wanted to see me?

I guess, I didn't want to see him because I was mad at him. All my life he ignored me and he was like my father. Every other Kokiri got to see him at least a few times a year, but he just ignored me. He didn't even give me a fairy. Now that I'm 12 years old it is far too late for him to try to be a father to me. I didn't need his pity, especially now.

We finally reached the path that lead to the Deku Tree and annoyingly enough, Mido stood in our path. Just looking at him annoyed me and made me want to leave, but I confronted him anyway.

"Mido, we need to see the Deku Tree. I've been summoned, so if you could move, it would be greatly appreciated." Mido's mouth gaped open.

"What?! You have a fairy?! When did this happen?!" I rolled my eyes and shrugged.

"This morning, actually." He didn't seem to care that I answered his question and just continued his interrogation.

"And you've been summoned by the Great Deku Tree!? This is unbelievable!"

"Sooo, will you move already?" Mido removed his surprised face and regained his composure before responding.

"No."

"What do you mean _no_?!" He smiled wickedly.

"Well, if your going to go see the Great Deku Tree you must pass a simple test. It's standard Kokiri protocol."

"No, it isn't." Mido looked irritated.

"It is if I say it is!" I sighed.

"What do I have to do?" Mido looked startled by the question, as if he didn't expect me to ask it. He began to stare into the sky, obviously trying to think of something.

When he finally did, he said, "You have to get a sword and shield."

"What?! How do you expect me to get those?!" Mido shrugged and looked to the side.

"Not my problem." I was about ready to knock him out and just go see the Deku Tree anyway, but as I looked towards him, I saw him smirk. I figured that was what he wanted. It wouldn't look good for me, and Mido would never let me live it down, so I just walked away.

Walking away, I heard the fairy say, "Nice job controlling your anger. I'm proud of you!" I looked up at her.

"How'd you know I was angry?"

"Well, besides the fact that it was written all over your face, fairies can feel our partner's emotions. That's why we make such good partners, it's almost impossible to hide anything from us." As I took this all in, I came to the conclusion that I would have to get good at hiding and controlling my emotions, if I was going to have a fairy as a partner. Setting those thoughts aside, I decided to focus on the task at hand.

"Where are we going to find a sword and shield?"

"Well," the fairy began. "There's a shop in town that sells shields. I know that for sure." She paused for a second. "Shouldn't you know that? I mean, you do live here, don't you?" I sighed.

"I never felt the need to go to all the shops. I don't think I even really know what most of the shops around here sell."

Navi just stared at me for a second, before she said, sarcastically, "Okay, that makes sense."

"Whatever," I replied. "Do you know how much one costs?" Navi took a second to think.

"Yep. 40 rupees." My heart sank. I knew for a fact I didn't have that much rupees. Navi sighed. "You don't have that much, do you?"

"Stop doing that. It's creepy, and no, I don't have that much." I paused and thought about the situation. "Does the Deku Tree need to see my today or can it wait?"

"No, he can't wait. It has to be _today._" Well then, there is only one thing I can do then. I'd have to steal it. Of course, it wasn't as simple as that. I had a partner now. I'd have to get the fairy's consent or figure out a way to distract it while I stole the shield. The second option raised more problems then solutions, so I figured I'd have to get the fairy's consent. I shrugged. It shouldn't be that hard.

"Hey, the Deku Tree needs to see me _now_, right? She seemed miffed that I repeated the question, but I needed to ask for emphasis.

"Yeah, _duh_. Didn't I just say that?"

"There's no way I can get that kind of money today, so there is only one logical solution. We'll have to steal one." It stopped moving. The fairy then got right in my face out of nowhere.

"Are you crazy! We are not stealing anything! What's wrong with you!" I defended myself quickly.

"If he needs to see me today, this is the only way! We'll pay them back later, but we can't worry about that right now! We need to get to him!" I had no intention of paying them back for the shield, but I didn't want Navi to know that. Navi stopped to take this in.

Solemnly, she said, "Your right. We need to get to him, quickly. We've already wasted too much time. Fine, it goes against everything I believe in, but let's do it." I smiled.

"Okay, show me where the shop is then." The fairy led the way and we were soon standing in front of it. The shop looked like a tree trunk that had been hollowed out and had a door installed in front, but it still looked good. There were a few windows and I figured that would be the best entry point. I'd never stolen in plain daylight before so I was nervous, to say the least.

After staring at the shop for a while, Navi got impatient and said, "Are you done staring? This is important, we need to get it over with quickly."

"Patience. If you make one mistake, we'll get busted. You don't want that, do you?" It didn't say anything. I figured that was a "No," or "Shut up."

After a little while I came up with a plan. "Okay, this is it. You're going to distract the shop owner and bring him out here. I'll enter through that window, and grab the shield. When I'm done, I'll go out through the same window, and signal for you to let him go. And that will be that."

Navi just stared.

"_All that time_...you took _all_ that time to come up with a plan that simple! My goddesses, you're an _idiot_!" Even though she did have a point, that remark still annoyed me.

"Shut up! I tried to think of something more complicated, but nothing came to mind. Just, do your part. I'm going in now." I walked over to the window and waited for it to do its job. Soon enough, the fairy had the shop owner outside. It had its annoying voice on again and for a moment I felt bad for him. Oh, well.

Climbing into the window was easy, and I was soon inside. To my left was the exit, and my right was the counter. Walking over to the counter, I saw many different types of things that might have be useful. There were deku nuts, sticks, and shields. I wanted to grab a lot of things, but I figured it was better to stick with the one thing I came for. I quickly grabbed it and put it in the bag Saria had given to me not too long ago. I didn't want to stay here longer then necessary, so I ran back to the window and jumped out.

My fairy was still chatting with the Kokiri that owned the shop. I waved my arms to get her attention. She then said something else to the shop-owner. He shrugged and walked back into his store. I ran back to my fairy and said, "Got it. Let's get out of here!"

"Agreed." We ran for a while before we finally came to a stop. I was a bit out of breath, but the fairy seemed fine. It glanced at me and said, "Where'd you put it?"

"In my pouch." I said, indicating the bag that was attached to a belt on my waist.

"It fits in that?"

"Yeah, it's magic."

"Okay...anyway, aren't you going to wear it?"

"What?"

"The shield."

"Ummmm...I guess that's probably a good idea." I pulled out the shield and looked at it. It was wooden with the Kokiri symbol painted in red on the front. It came with a strap, so that one could put it on easily. It slipped on smoothly, as if it were made for me. I smiled. It felt good to wear one of these, and I didn't really know why.

"Hey, Link! Focus. We need to find a sword now." I looked up at her and responded with an irritated tone.

"It would help if we knew where one was."

"Well, I'm not sure if it's true, but according to legend there is a sword hidden around here called the Kokiri Sword. I don't know _exactly_ where to look, but I have a general idea."

"How come I've never heard of it?" A sword like that definitely would have made a great object to steal.

"The leader of the Kokiri village is the only Kokiri who is supposed to know about it...I think." I cringed. Stupid Mido.

"Well, Where would your general idea be?"

"In the Kokiri gardens."

"The Kokiri Gardens?" The Kokiri Gardens was pretty self-explanatory. It was a place where the Kokiri grew crops for food. It was surrounded by a small gate, which offered it little protection. Why would a sword be anywhere near there? The stupid fairy of mine made it sound like it was the _obvious_ place to put a sword.

"Yeah, that's about where the path to it should be."

"Let's get going then." We ran in the direction of the Kokiri Gardens. It took about five minutes to get there. I jumped the fence and we began our search. As far as I could tell, there was nothing. I kept searching in the plant life hoping to find something, anything really. There were tons of rocks and plant life scattered around here that it was almost impossible to check everything. When we had just about searched everywhere and I was beginning to give up hope Navi spoke up.

"Link! I think I found something!" I immediatly ran over to her. She was floating over a rock.

"Is this it?"

"I don't know. I need you to move it though." I nodded and braced myself to push it. It was the biggest rock in the yard, so I felt it would be hard to push. Much to my surprise, it wasn't. Once I pushed the rock, it just fell over, which made me fall over for the third time today. Navi didn't laugh. She was too focused on the new path we'd just uncovered. It was small, so I'd have to crawl in. I looked up at Navi and smiled wickedly.

It's a good thing I wasn't claustrophobic because it was a tight fit. The tunnel took a while to get through, but if the sword was in here it would be worth it. Once I reached the end of the tunnel I stood up, dusted myself off, and took in my surroundings. The new area I was in was not very big, but it was big enough for me to have some maneuverability, in case there were traps in here. It didn't look natural at all, so I figured someone must have made it. Someone who wanted to hide the sword from the world. If it was man made then would that mean that there were man made traps? Probably.

As I walked forward it didn't take long for us to reach a two-way corridor. Looking to the right, I could see that it was a dead end. There was a rock leaning on the wall along, with some weeds growing nearby. The obvious choice was the left since that one didn't end, so that's where I went.

As we walked, I began to feel an emotion that I'd never wanted to feel again.

_Fear._

It had come back again. Something wasn't right in these passageways, and I knew it. Shoving my fears aside, I kept going anyway. The farther we went the more I felt that impending doom was near. I was so concentrated on going forward and ignoring my fear that I didn't feel the tugging on my leg as I pulled a trip wire.

My fairy saw it though.

"Link, down!" It's voice snapped me out of my distress and I soon saw a lot of sharp projectiles coming toward me. I threw myself on the ground just before they could reach me. They whizzed over my head and I felt the wind as they passed. "Look out!" I looked up at the fairy and immediately knew what it meant.

I had landed on another trip wire.

I cursed inwardly as new projectiles came from above.

Instinctively, I took the shield off my back and tried my best to cover my entire body. The thud of the missiles as they hit my shield almost made my lose my grip on it, but I held on for dear life. The shower of death ended quickly, and when I didn't feel anything else for a while, I slipped my shield up on my back. The fairy chuckled weakly. It's relief clear.

"Smooth moves, fairy boy." I didn't reply. My heart was still racing too fast to say anything. I just got back up and continued. Inwardly, I felt both proud of myself and like an idiot. I was proud of myself because I hadn't been paralyzed with fear and I managed to keep my head, but I also felt like an idiot for letting myself fall in a trap as simple as that in the first place.

"You're not an idiot, Link. You did good. No one expects perfection in these types of situations, especially from a 12 year old." I looked at the fairy and even though I was still mad at myself I took it's words to heart.

"Thank you."

We continued to walk in silence. I kept checking around for anymore trip wires, but it seemed as though that was it. To pass the time, I thought about my fairy. Even though it could be very annoying and talk a lot, it seemed that it could sometimes say the right things at the right times, as well. It was weird how when I met it this morning, I didn't want it anywhere near me, but now, I kind-of enjoyed it. Especially since it had just saved my life a little while ago.

I immediatly stopped thinking about it. It wasn't like me to begin to trust someone this easily. Was it because, maybe, deep down inside, I'd always wanted one? I'd convinced myself all my life that being different was good. That I'd wanted to be different.

That I wanted to be alone.

No partner.

_Ever._

Was that all just a lie I told myself to get through the day?

Did I even know what I wanted anymore?

We were reaching the end of the tunnel now. I could see it in the distance. I needed to be extra careful now. I didn't want to run into any last minute traps now, did I? There were no trip wires so I took a step forward. As soon as my foot touched the ground, it sank.

"What?" I murmured to myself. A sound resounded behind me. I turned to see what I was facing, and what I saw was definitely something I didn't expect.

A giant boulder was rolling toward me.

"Look out!" I flinched at the sound of the fairy's voice.

"I know, I see it." Wasting no more time, I turned and ran. The boulder was close behind me and I wasn't sure if I could outrun it. I could swear that I felt it scrape against my back a couple times before we finally reached the end of the passageway, and I jumped to the side. It continued to roll on until it hit the end. That was close.

I got up and dusted off my tunic before looking at the room I was now in. The room was small, but right in the middle was a chest that could have fit _me_ in it. I immediately walked up to it. Once I got there I paused before opening it, so that I could savor the moment. Then I opened it, and I saw the sword.

It was beautiful. The sword was probably half my length with a wooden handle and a ruby engraved into it. It was the most glorious thing I'd ever seen. I lifted it and, to my amazement, It was light. I swung a few practice swings, trying to get a feel for it.

"That's cool." I jumped. I had forgotten the fairy was here.

"Yes, it is." We stared at the sword for a few more seconds before it turned back to me.

"Well, get it on your back, already! We've finally got a sword and shield, so that means we can go see the Great Deku Tree now. We can't waste anymore time." I looked back in the chest and found a strap that would allow the sword to fit on my back. I put the sword under my shield with the handle facing up for easy access. Now that, _that_ was taken care of, I had to find a way out.

I searched the room again quickly, and I noticed a tunnel similar to the first one I went through from the Kokiri Gardens. I went over to it and crawled in. This one was pretty long and when I reached the end of it, I panicked. It was covered by something. Maybe a rock. I began to push on it, until finally it budged enough for me to get out. Once I was out I scanned the area to figure out where I was. Once I did, though, I felt like an idiot. I was now back where I started, except in the passageway I assumed was a dead end. There had been a secret passage way that would get me there _without_ any traps, and I just _happened_ to go the hard way. Stupid.

The fairy was just laughing.

"Are you serious?! We went through all that for nothing! That's just ironic!" I gave her a warning look.

"Shut up, Navi."

I didn't want to be here any longer so I immediately ran for the other tiny tunnel.

Once I was finally back in the village, I took a deep breath. It felt good to be out here again. Being in that dungeon-like area for too long would make anybody beg for sunshine and warmth. I was glad I wouldn't have to do anything like _that_ again anytime soon.

I looked up into the sky. It was mid-afternoon. Finding Mido would be simple, because he would probably still be in the same place. Sure enough, there he was. When we reached Mido he was just standing there, staring up at the sky. He was probably day dreaming or something. I was surprised he wasn't drooling.

"Hey, Mido!" He awoke from his fantasy world and glared at me.

"What do you want?" I pulled the sword out with my left hand and the shield with my right, smirking.

"I have a sword and a shield. I passed your little test, now let me go see the Deku Tree." Mido looked at the sword suspiciously.

"Where'd you get that sword?"

"None of your business." He grunted with disdain, and pouted in defeat.

"Good, Grief! This isn't fair! You're Saria's favorite and now your going to be the Great Deku Tree's, too. Ugh!" With that he stepped to the side and allowed me to pass.

I smiled as I walked past him.

Mido, what a pathetic loser.

The path to the Deku Tree wasn't very long. Soon I could make out the Deku Tree in the distance. It wasn't hard to recognize him, even though that was the first time I'd ever seen him. He was basically just a tree with a face.

When I neared him Navi began to pull ahead of me and said, "Great Deku Tree, I have brought Link!" The face began to stir and his mouth began to move, forming words.

"Thank you, Navi. May I ask, what took so long?" Navi chuckled.

"Complications arose, but were soon overcome."

"Hmmm." Then his eyes shifted to me. "Link, I will get to the point, since we don't have much time. You no doubt remember the attack this village suffered just one week ago. Their leader, the green man who calls himself Ganondorf, came into this village demanding something from me. When I didn't give it to him, he cursed me." I shook my head.

"Wait a second. Why are you telling _me_ this, and how can someone curse someone as powerful as _you?"_

"The man who cursed me is beyond my own power, and I'm telling you this because your the only one who can break the curse." I scoffed at the idea that he could be telling the truth. Was this a prank?

"What?"

"You've always known you were..._different_. It is only _you_, Link. I need you to be courageous, for me, for the village, and for the world. Link, I need you to go inside me to find the source of the curse. Then, you must kill it." My head was spinning. What did I have to do with the _world?_

"I don't know what to say."

"Say yes, or no. Do you have the courage to take on this challenge?" I thought of the vow I had made. If I said no, would I be able to say I was courageous at all? Would I be able to be proud of myself and say that I stood up to my fears? I knew the answer to these questions, and I knew the answer I would give to the Deku Tree's _own_ question.

"Yes."

"Then enter, and prove your courage to _me_." His mouth slowly extended itself to the point where it didn't look like a mouth anymore. It was more like a huge door, now. I took a deep breath before I began my walk into the Great Deku Tree. Something told me this wasn't going to end well.

* * *

**Author's Note: ****This is my first fan-fiction story. Any constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Beta'd by SCARREDxFORxLIFE.**

**Also, a thanks to Mental Angel for being my first, and only reviewer. Lol. Thanks, you're appreciated.**


	4. Deku Tree Part 1

**The Legend of a Thief:**** Ocarina of Time**

**Chapter 4**

* * *

The Deku tree was _huge_. You wouldn't expect a tree to have so much space on the inside. Looking at it now, if I hadn't known I was in the Deku Tree, I would never have guessed that _this_ was his insides.

The weirdest thing was that it didn't look natural at all. It was like someone had come in here and made a dungeon out of the Deku Tree. Looking up, it had at least 3 stories. There was even a basement. Its entrance was covered by a giant web that looked, relatively sturdy.

I heard my fairy make a whistling sound.

"Wow. I didn't expect him to look like _this_." I barely registered it's voice, but answered anyway.

"No kidding." I took a few steps forward and neared the web. Once I reached it, I looked down. There was a little body of water down there, and I couldn't really make out the rest. I took a step onto the web. My fairy yelled to stop me, but it was already too late. I was on it.

The web felt delicate under me, yet I knew that my weight alone would not break it. I walked towards the middle while still looking down. I didn't know why it was, but for some reason I felt that, _that_ was where we were supposed to go. The cold, and dark feeling of evil had been lurking in the back of my mind ever since we walked in, but it's presence was stronger directly below me.

The source of the curse is _definitely_ down there.

I began to jump on the web, testing it's durability.

"What are you doing?"

I just continued jumping, while casually answering it's question.

"Testing it."

"What for?"

"We need to head down there."

The fairy flew over and practically crashed into my face. I resisted the urge to smack it.

"How in the world would you know _that_? There are floors above us, how do you know we don't need to go up there?" Before I answered, I looked up at the higher floors and shrugged.

"We might have to go up there first, but the source of the curse is down there."

"How do you know that?"

"Just a feeling."

It scoffed. "A feeling? Come on, we're going to need more than _that_. We need sound hard proof, okay?" While my fairy rambled on and on about the necessity of logic, I tuned her out and focused on more important things. Breaking this web wasn't going to be easy. I pulled out my sword and slashed into the web.

"Link, what are you doing?!" It squealed in horror. I smirked.

"Too late."

The sword made contact with the web, but much to my surprise, it just bounced off. I stood there, staring at the spot my sword made contact with, dumbfounded.

Since when can a web do_ that_?

My fairy let out a a relieved little laugh.

"Wow, that's really weird." She paused, before continuing. "But I guess that's a point for you. That web is obviously there to keep us out. If we're not supposed to go in, then that means, that its _possible_ the curse is down there." I smiled in victory.

"Told you." The fairy just turned away from me.

"Shut up." I laughed, because I think that was the first time she had ever said that to me. I walked off the web. We needed to find a way to break it, but in the meantime, there was no harm in exploring the rest of the area.

Since down was no longer an option, I figured I should go up. Conveniently enough, there was a ladder that would take me up to the next floor. As I neared the ladder I heard a low growling sound. I turned around and saw a large plant with sharp teeth giving me a death glare.

"That's a _Deku Baba_," my fairy whispered to me.

"Is it dangerous?" I instantly realized how stupid that sounded, but I hadn't been thinking when I said it. So I guess the lesson is always think before you ask a stupid question. The fairy didn't seem to notice though.

"Yeah, but you should be able to handle it easily." I nodded and was about to say something, but the plant interrupted me with a lunge at my throat.

Seeing this I immediately jumped to the side, barely dodging it. Once I felt my feet touch the ground, I pulled out my sword and shield and observed my opponent. Since the Deku Baba had a vine-like body, and was very skinny, it had needed to use all of its strength just to make that one lunge.

After the fairly quick lunge was made, it recovered slowly and was straightening its body. Once it finishes its lunge is when I should attack it.

Since the Deku Baba was almost recovered I decided to wait for the next lunge. I didn't want to attack too hastily. Once the Deku Baba had straightened itself it snarled at me and then continued giving me a death glare.

It must be waiting for me to drop my defenses, I thought to myself. I let a grim little smile cross my face. I don't need my shield for this anyway. I tossed it away. The creature tilted it's head to the side, drooling slightly.

"Come on," I muttered._ Taunting_ it.

The Deku Baba seemed to get the hint and made a quick lunge for my right side. I rolled to the left and brought my sword down on the creature's delicate body. It gave one quick cry of defiance before my sword cut it cleanly in half. Green blood splattered on my tunic from the it's wound and the weird thing is, I wasn't grossed out.

I shrugged. At least it matches my tunic.

My fairy whistled enthusiastically.

"Nice moves, fairy boy! Is this your first time using a sword?" I put on a face of indifference.

"Yeah, so?" In truth though, I was amazed at how well the sword felt when I used it. It had flowed so naturally it felt _un_natural, if that makes sense.

"You're definitely a natural," she said with a laugh. I turned my attention away from my fairy and back to the ladder.

"Well, let's continue," I said, while removing my hair from my face. It was getting long, and I hadn't decided whether or not I liked it that way. While I walked over to where my shield lay, I thought that strategically it would probably be best to cut it. I picked up my shield and dusted it off before strapping it back on.

My fairy was already by the ladder and I rushed over to rejoin her.

Once I reached her she grumbled, "Finally." It was loud enough for me to hear, but low enough to be considered talking to herself. I shrugged off the comment and just continued up the ladder.

Once on the top I quickly scanned the area. There wasn't too much to see up here. There was a spiral pathway that led up to higher grounds. Since that seemed to be the only pathway I could find, I decided to take it. Along the way, the path had a gap which I had to jump across. The rest of it was just plain and simple walking.

As we neared the top, the pathway leveled off. It was a dead end. My fairy stopped me, murmuring softly, "Link, look at this wall." I turned and immediately saw what she meant.

"This wall has a rough surface, rough enough for me to climb." I didn't wait for her reply. I checked for a suitable place to grab on to, and began my trek up.

"Link, I don't think we should climb up there just yet." She was next to me already. Stupid fairy, she didn't have to climb.

"What do you mean? _You're_ the one who pointed out this wall." I continued climbing.

"I _know_ that Link, but I feel something dangerous up here." I rolled my eyes.

"A _feeling_? And here I thought we needed sound hard _proof_." I said mockingly. "Besides, there is danger _**everywhere**_." I just heard her grumble a response and I took that as a victory. I was almost at the top when I heard it. The vines I were climbing were rustling.

Something was up here with me.

It was coming from below me. I looked down and saw a spider-thing charging me. It was building up speed fast.

I reached out as far as I could to the side and once I had a tight grip on the wall, I wrenched myself to the side. I glanced back and watched as the spider barely missed me. The spider seemed a little less than half my size and it climbed with incredible speed. I tried to size up my opponent a bit more, but I was interrupted by the fairy's voice.

"Link! Below you!" I didn't even look down to see the other spider. I just crawled as fast as I could to my side with the most maneuvering space. The spider whizzed past me and didn't even attempt to change direction.

Seeing this, I came to the conclusion that as soon as they reach a certain speed in their charge, it was probably impossible for them to change direction. Of course, I couldn't keep dodging like this forever.

The spiders were recovering from their assaults and were now preparing for another one. I needed both arms to maneuver away from them fast enough, so there was no way I would be able to attack them while climbing.

I cursed, as I saw the spiders coming in for another attack. Only being able to dodge, I realized that I couldn't stay on this wall for very long. I was closer to the top than the bottom, so I figured up was the best way to go.

One of the spiders made a charge at me and I decided to keep my course and attempt to play chicken with it. The spider kept coming and I kept up my upward crawl. I heard my fairy scream out something to me, but I didn't pay attention to her. I needed to time this right.

Just as the spider and I were about to collide I spread out my arms and legs a suitable distance, pushed myself outward while still holding on, and smirked as the spider continued charging uselessly under me.

I picked up the pace. That spider should be out for a while, I just need to worry about the other one. It was carefully nearing me. It appeared that this one didn't want to charge unless it was sure it could get me.

I needed to put myself in danger again if I was going to get past this one. I can't take too long to think of something either. If I take too long the other one will have recovered and then I'll be screwed.

Since there is no time to think of a more intelligent plan, it will have to be a battle of speed. Will I be fast enough to evade my enemy at close range? As we got closer I tried to think of some way to anticipate it's attack. Is there something it does consistently before it charges? I thought back to all the attacks I'd suffered from these creatures.

Come to think of it, the spiders had all glowed a slight green before and during a charge. It was faint, but I was sure that I had seen the obscure green glow.

I was right in front of the spider now. The fairy was still screeching bloody murder, but I continued to ignore her.

The spider and I were having a stare down, one that I felt, oddly enough, I was going to lose. Usually, I was good at glaring things to death.

Even though, I had a plan to survive I was still nervous. After a while, I saw the faint glow of green around it's jaw appear and I threw myself to the side. Quickly reaching out and grasping at the wall. I scrabbeled a bit before I finally managed to get a good grip. I was just barely quick enough. I wasted no time and continued my climb up. Now that there were no more dumb spiders in the way I should be able to make it up. The manuever I had used to escape had cost me some ground, though.

I was just reaching the top when I heard my fairy shout, "Link! There's another one!" That made me freeze in place. _Another one?_

I looked to my right and saw it. It was already about to hit me. There was only one thing to do. I placed my feet against the wall firmly, pushed off of it, and let go. I was now in the air. I must have been about 15 meters high. I cursed as I fell toward the ground.

Instinctively, I twisted my body to land on my feet. When I landed I heard a cracking sound in my legs, gave out a yelp, and fell to the floor. My fairy was instantly at my side.

"_Link!?!_You idiot! What'd you do that for?!" I was breathing heavily, trying to contain the searing pain.

"I...thought I could...make...it." I managed to ground out. Navi just continued yelling. She was hovering and moving around me at a frantic pace. It was almost hard to see her in my blurred and darkening vision. Was I _crying?_ _God, I hope not..._

"Of _course_ you did! You want to know _why_ you think like that? Because you're stupid! I _told_ you it was dangerous up there, but _nooo_, you wouldn't listen to me!! If you had just listened to we wouldn't be _in_ this mess! Can't you _think_ before you do something! _Please!_ I need you _alive_!" Her annoying voice had _already_ made me forget my pain.

"_Dang_it, Navi! Are you going to help me or just keep yelling like that?!" This made her pause, and she just stood there for a while, staring at me.

She took a deep, shuddering breath and began to say, "You're right. Sorry, I wasn't being a very helpful partner. It's just that, I couldn't stand to lose you. If you die than that means I failed as a fairy partner. I can't bear the thought of being a failure." I paused and took that in. I looked up at her and gave her a weak smile.

"I understand, I'll try to be more careful." Navi bobbed, a motion that resembled a nod.

"Is that leg broken?" I was about to respond back sarcastically, but I stopped myself. Navi was an annoying fairy, but she wasn't that bad. She was just really uptight. I shouldn't be too mean to her.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is."

"Well, that's not too big of a problem." I gave her a quizzical look.

"What do you mean? I can't walk now and I doubt that you can carry me or defend us." Navi made a shrugging motion.

"I'll just heal you."

"You can do that?!"

"Yeah. You see how I glow, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, that is a fairy's life force. The brighter I glow, the more life I have. If a fairy has received special training then one can transfer life force to another being, thus healing them." I nodded slowly, taking all this in.

"But, if you're giving up life force to heal things, then if you give up enough, won't you _die_?" Navi grew quietfor a moment, before answering.

"Well, let's not worry about _that_. I have enough life force to heal this kind of wound with no problem." I heard a small undertone in her voice.

It sounded like she was...worried? Something told me that she didn't want to think about what would happen if she had to use all of her life force to heal me. I sighed. I guess that means I _should_be more careful from now on. I looked up at Navi.

"You ready?" she said. I tried giving her a comforting smile. Though, it probably came out more as a grimace.

"If you are."

"Don't move." I nodded. Suddenly she began to shine brightly. She floated towards my injured leg. Once she reached it, she flew in quick little circles above it. I began to feel strangely tipsy. I found it hard to sit straight and I decided to just lay there.

Once Navi was finished she flew to her normal position and said, "The effects of my life force are somewhat unpredictable. It's different for everyone." I slowly got up.

"No kidding. I've never felt so strange in my entire life."

"Well, since it seems you can walk, let's continue. We need to rid the Great Deku Tree of this curse." I nodded, glad to find my face dry, and looked up at the wall I'd received my broken leg from.

"It's probably safe to assume that it isn't a good idea to climb back up there, huh?"

"You better not even _think_ about it."

I laughed. "Don't worry, I won't. Not unless I can guarantee my own safety." I paused before asking, "Do you have an alternate route in mind?"

"Well, there is a door ahead of here. That's probably a good place to start."

I sighed. I should have started there in the first place. _I am an idiot._

I walked up the path and neared the door. It was all wood with not a single door handle to open it with. Seeing this, I got closer to investigate it, but to my surprise, it opened automatically.

"Cool," I whispered to myself. I entered the next room and I noticed something odd. There was a strange flower sitting there in the middle of the room. The pedals were a light pink and looked very out of place in the dark room.

I took a few steps forward, when I noticed the flower shift. I was pretty sure that flowers didn't move by themselves. I wasn't going to take any chances after what happened earlier, so I drew my sword. The flower continued to shift until suddenly a strange creature popped up out of the flower.

The creature was made entirely of wood. It had creepy yellow eyes and a long snout with a large opening. I didn't see a mouth though.

"Do you know what that _thing_ is?"

"It's a _Deku Scrub_."

"Do know anything else about it?"

"Wel-" I didn't pay attention to what she said next. I _couldn't_.

I had kept my eyes on the Scrub the whole time, but I still _barely_saw the movement. At first it jerked back, but the next thing I knew, a trajectile was flying towards me at a great speed. This development surprised me and I didn't react in time.

The thing that hit me was as hard as a rock and it nailed me right in the chest. I fell back and the wind was knocked out of me. I didn't let the pain keep me down though.

Immediately, I jumped back up and readied my sword. The Scrub prepared to launch another attack and then unleashed it. I blocked its missiles with my sword and just when I thought I would have some time to ready myself for the next attack, I had to raise my sword to block again. Each ammo broke upon impact with my sword, but they hit it so hard that I felt I was in danger of it being knocked out of my hand.

The longer the duel kept on, the faster the attack became. I could barely keep up anymore. Surprisingly, the scrub slowed the pace down. I thought this was a good thing, but now I realized that the projectiles would be even harder to block now that they were being strategically fired. I had to block and defend from different awkward positions. It was definitely difficult.

Suddenly, the scrub made a shot that if I had left alone, would have missed entirely. I didn't leave it alone though. I wasn't thinking about it and just tried to block it instinctively. I succeeded in blocking it, but the position I hit it with was so off that my sword flew out of my hand at impact.

Seeing this, I immediately took my shield off my back. The scrub took a second to relish his supposed victory and that was his mistake. By the time he shot again, I was already in a defensive stance. The projectile struck the shield and much to my surprise, reflected back to the scrub. The scrub seemed surprised by this as well, as was evident in his eyes.

The projectile pelted him in the face, and he immediately jumped out of the flower to take off running.

My fairy was quick to shout, "Quick Link, after him!" I jumped into action, quickly giving chase. I was having a hard time catching him, but while we were running I passed by my sword and I swiftly picked it up in my free hand. Soon enough, the scrub trapped itself in a corner. When I neared it, the scrub turned around, and began to beg.

"_Please_, don't kill me master! If you don't, I'll tell you something that might be of use to you." I paused, a little surprised. _It can talk?_ I had just assumed that it was a brainless beast like all the other ones. It never occurred to me that this creature might posses some sort of intelligence.

"Like what?"

"I'm not saying. You have to promise not to kill me."

"Fine, I won't kill you," I lied. The Scrub stared at me for a second, as if deciding whether or not to trust me before it continued.

"Okay, then. I saw how you fell back there and broke your leg. Well, here is a little something that might help you with that. If you roll forward when you land you should be able to survive longer falls than if you don't. If the height is higher than maybe, 20 meters, I doubt it will work." I took his information to heart. That _is_ very helpful.

I looked at him and thought to myself, _ok_ _time to kill you now_.

The scrub yelped and burrowed itself into the ground before I could even raise my sword. I was a confused by this. How did it know I was going to kill it? I never made a move or even voiced my desire. _Strange_.

I decided not to let it bother me and started to make my way to the door leading to the next room. I was stopped by the fairy's inquisitive voice.

"You were going to kill him, weren't you?" I stopped walking and turned to face my fairy.

"Did my emotions give me away?"

"Why were you going to kill him? He was _begging_ for mercy. It wouldn't have been self defense, Link. It would have been _murder_." I thought that for a second. It _would_ be murder, wouldn't it?

"Well, If _I _had been the one begging for mercy, would he have spared _me?_No, he wouldn't have. Therefore, I will not give mercy to things undeserving of it." Navi fluttered back in surprise.

"Link, you're supposed to be _better_ than you're enemies, not the same. You have no right to be called a hero if you don't put yourself above your own enemies." That sentence confused me. _Hero?_ Who said anything about being a _hero?_

"What are you talking about? _Sure_, I'm getting rid of the curse placed on the Deku Tree, but I hardly think that makes me a hero. Where are you getting that from?" Navi stopped fluttering and chuckled somewhat nervously.

"Just forget I said anything. Let's continue on to the next room." She fluttered her wings a little before continuing. "And don't kill anything unless it is for self defense." I ignored that last part since I was still thinking about what she had said earlier. I was still confused, but I decided to drop it and continue to the next room.

As I turned around my sharp ears heard Navi mutter something. I replayed the sound in my head until finally, I understood what she said.

She had said, "Stupid! He's not _supposed_ to know anything about being the hero, yet." What does that mean? Hero of _what?_

It seems that my fairy and the Deku Tree are hiding something. The Deku Tree had said that I needed to be courageous for the world. Now, the fairy says I'm some sort of _hero?_ As the door opened itself before me I shook my head, decided not to think about it, and just focus on the task at hand.

The next room had something very unusual in it. There was a floating platform in-between two different raised up sides, with a decent-sized drop. I walked over to the edge and looked down. It looked like it was just a little lower than the fall I took earlier.

I tried to figure out whether or not I should test out the thing the scrub had told me about, but the stupid floating platform kept diverting my attention.

"Hey."

"Yeah?" I looked from the platform back to her.

"What do you think is holding up that platform? Is it magic?"

Navi thought about it for a second before saying, "Probably, even though I don't think I've seen anything like _that_. Usually magic will operate in someone, and that someone will have to concentrate on whatever it is he or she wants to do, but no one is here to watch over this magic. It's just like with that web that we came across in the beginning. Nobody is keeping the magic working, yet the effects are still there anyway. Whoever placed a curse of this magnitude on the Great Deku Tree has some _seriously_ powerful magic." I meditated on everything she just said.

"Would jumping on it be safe?" Navi responded quickly.

"I would say so." I nodded and prepared myself to jump on it. I needed to cross this gap. There was a chest on the other side that looked similar to the one I found the sword in and I had a feeling that whatever was in it would be very useful.

I ran toward the edge and leaped for the platform. Just before I landed I had a sinking feeling that if I didn't move quickly, this would end badly. I soon landed and promptly ran to jump to the other side. It was the right choice, because right when I landed the platform began to crumble up and fall. I barely made it to the other side of the platform and jumped before it was too late.

When I landed on the other side of the gap I put all my built up velocity into a forward roll. After that I got up and dusted off my tunic. Navi made a small whistling sound and chuckled a little.

"As I said before, smooth moves fairy boy." I didn't respond and just walked over to the chest. It was exactly the same size and model as the one I got the sword out of. I opened it up and reached inside of it. What I pulled out was way too small to be in a chest that big. It was a slingshot. It looked to be a very sturdy, and well made, slingshot. Most of the ones I'd seen were made to be playthings. This one looked like it could kill someone if it was a good enough shot.

"Wow, that looks like it's going to be very useful. Did it come with any ammunition?" The fairy asked. I took a little peak inside the chest again and noticed that there was indeed, a bag full of Deku Seeds.

"Yeah, but it looks like its just some Deku Seeds. I don't think those would hurt anyone very much."

Navi shrugged. "I think that is what the scrub used to nail _you_ with. And judging by the sound you made when that first one hit you, I would say they could hurt someone."

I was going to reply with a witty comment, but for some reason, I couldn't think of any. I fought back the sudden compulsion to flip her off. Choosing to just ignore her again, I started to think of how annoying it would be to carry _two_bags of things around. So, I decided to just stick the Deku Seeds in my own magical pouch. I took out the other bag and began the transfer.

"What are you doing?" I just kept going, and without looking at her, I responded.

"Transferring the deku seeds into my other bag. It would be kind of troublesome to carry both bags around, don't you think?"

She just nodded. "Can't argue with that logic." Once the transfer was complete I stuck the empty bag back in the chest. I then turned around, slingshot in hand, to try and figure out a way back.

Since the platform was gone and I was pretty sure I couldn't jump the whole distance, I needed to find an alternate way. There didn't seem to be any though.

"Hey, Link! Up here! Shoot this thing!" I looked up and saw my fairy floating right next to a ladder. I hadn't even noticed her fly up there. The ladder would definitely be the best way to get back to the other side. I lifted my slingshot...aimed...fired..._and almost killed my fairy._

"Hey!" she screamed at me, while barely managing to dodge the seed. "Watch your aim!"

"Sorry." I said, while trying to suppress my laughter and the grin I felt creeping across my face. Well, if the fairy every _does_ get too annoying, at least I now know of a sure way to kill it. I took aim again and this time hit the ladder, causing it to fall down. I jumped down there and rolled exactly like the scrub told me to and, much to my surprise, it worked. No physical harm came to me.

I climbed back up and backtracked through the rooms, until I was finally back in front of the place I had broken my leg at. I was looking up at the higher and darker areas of the wall, trying to locate the spiders that had so rudely knocked me off.

"Navi, fly up there and take a closer look. I'll follow you with my eyes. When you find one of those spiders, just yell and I'll shoot." Navi nodded warily, and gave me a dark look, "Just don't shoot me!"

I rolled my eyes as she took off. I reached into my pouch, pulling out my Slingshot and a Deku Seed. I got them both ready, right as I heard Navi shout.

I aimed my slingshot near Navi and searched for the spider. I had to focus my eyes strenuously, but I could finally see the spider. A smug smile spread across my face before I let the seed fly. It stayed true to its course and smacked it right on its head. The monster fell to the ground and crumpled up. It looked like it probably died on impact.

With that we repeated the process with the other two spiders, killing them quickly and efficiently. After that I continued with my climb, this time making it to the next floor. This floor was almost a mirror image of the last. Just one huge and long pathway that goes in a circle. There were webs that kept you from falling off except in certain places.

I decided it would be a good idea to check out one of those areas. I neared one to take a look over the edge, but I heard Navi yell so I at once jumped backwards. What landed in front of me was definitely something I could have lived without seeing. It was a spider that was even bigger than _me._

It wasn't on the floor, instead using a strand of web to keep itself barely above the ground. It was showing me its front side and just by looking at it I could tell that my sword would have a hard time penetrating it. That wasn't going to stop me from trying though.

I took out both my sword and shield, and prepared to charge. Once I began my run, I kept my sword back , so that when I was ready to strike I would be able to build up the power in my swing faster, and I kept my shield in front to eradicate any danger. When I neared the spider and brought my sword around to stab at it, the giant spider made a devastating spin attack, knocking me back onto the ground.

"Are you okay?!" yelled my fairy. I slowly got myself up and responded.

"Yeah, luckily my shield got the worst of it," I groaned. The spider had stopped itself from its spin and was facing me again. Since I got the feeling a straight forward assault wasn't going to work, I put away my weapons, and took out my slingshot. I took out a seed, aimed, and fired. The seed just bounced off the hard surface, making the spider swing somewhat uncontrollably. The spider stopped the swinging as quickly as it could, but while it was trying to stop itself it gave me a glimpse of its backside. I wasn't sure, but I thought that the other side of it was softer.

Since I wasn't sure I aimed another seed at the spider, this time at an angle that would hopefully expose its backside. When it connected the spider spun around and I got to see its back. It was definitely more vulnerable than the front and I was sure that if I could somehow get my sword in there I could kill this creature.

The spider swung itself around with a speed so fast that I barely saw it. It obviously didn't want to leave itself exposed for too long. The slingshot didn't have enough power to keep the spider flustered for too long. I smiled as a thought occurred to me.

I do though.

I put away the slingshot and pulled out my two main weapons. I charged the spider again with my sword and shield out, this time though, my objective was different.

My shield wasn't being held out in front of me like last time. Instead it was hanging back, similar to the way my sword was. This time when we met, I swung my shield instead of my sword to hit him. The shield nailed the spider and kept me from flying off.

Since I hit the spider in the same direction he was already spinning, it just caused him to spin quicker and more uncontrollably. I backed off a little ways to avoid getting hit. The spider, out of instinct, tried to stop himself as fast as he could. Which was exactly what I wanted him to do.

It took a while to stop completely since this wasn't a spin he was controlling, so the spin began to slow itself gradually. When he was slow enough, I timed my sword stab to hit him in his unprotected back while he was still trying to stop. As the sword pierced its back it shrieked, fell from the web strand, and died. I pulled my sword out of its back and kicked the corpse over the edge. The body landed with a loud thud and I took a deep breath as I relished my victory.

"Good job. I almost thought you were stupid enough to try the same tactic when you charged, but you really surprised me there. You'll get really good with that sword in no time, no doubt."

"Thanks. Though, if I hadn't timed that move right, the spider probably would have killed me."

"They're called Skulltulas."

I paused. "Really?"

Navi shrugged. "Yeah, they get it from their skull shaped bodies." Now that I think about, it did have a skull shaped body. _Weird._

"Anyway," she continued. "Weren't you going to check this area out?"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot." I began to check around the space the skulltula lived and found nothing useful. Then a thought occurred to me. Why would there be web blocking the edges so you couldn't fall? The only areas to fall from would be here, but a skulltula blocked it. Why didn't they want you to fall? I swung my sword at the web next to me and struck it. My sword just bounced off of it just like the one from below. Wait a second, the one from below? That's it!

"Navi, remember that platform that was under a magical spell and crushed when I landed on it?"

"Yeah."

"Well, my weight, it broke the spell on it and caused it fall, right?"

"I think so."

"And the web from the beginning, my weight alone wasn't enough to break the spell on it right?"

"Yeah? What's up with the questions?" I ignored her and continued.

"Well, if we jump from here and land on the web, my built up velocity plus my own weight should be enough to break the web, no?"

"Link, this is way higher than the fall that broke your leg! We don't have enough evidence to back up your claim and if you fail, then you can die! And if you die I can't exactly heal you back from that."

"We have plenty of evidence. First of all, we have the example of the platform. And we have these webs. These webs were obviously put there so that we couldn't fall down from up here and land on the web."

"You're saying that based on assumptions, none of that you know for sure!" I just rolled my eyes.

"Whatever. If you don't want to fine, but I'm going to anyway." Navi was about to try and stop me, but I had already jumped. I jumped with my feet facing towards the ground, in case it didn't work and I had to roll. Even though, this was way over 20 meters and it probably wouldn't work anyway.

I heard Navi flying after me and I heard her scream about how stupid I was, but I didn't care. I was sure this would work. I finally hit the web and for a second it looked like the web was going to hold, but it abruptly broke, leaving me to continue my descent into darkness.

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******Author's Note: ****This is my first fan-fiction story. Any constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Beta'd by SCARREDxFORxLIFE.**

**Just another thing. I would like to know what you think of how I wrote the temple. Any thoughts on how I could make the temple/dungeons more enjoyable would be very much appreciated.**


	5. Deku Tree Part 2

**The Legend of a Thief:**** Ocarina of Time**

**Chapter 5**

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The water was, as most water would be, cold and uninviting, but that wasn't the only thing that came to mind as I hit it's surface. Landing in any bad position, while falling from that kind of height, really _hurts_. I winced as the water hit my face. I forgot to breathe. I was under the water for a mere few seconds and I already felt like I was suffocating. I found my way back to the surface and promptly took a deep breath. After catching my breath, I made my way to land. I pulled myself up and plopped onto the ground, for a rest.

My fairy had finally caught up to me and was now yelling at me, "Link! You _idiot!_ You could have killed yourself! Why do you always d-"

I interrupted with a laugh. She just stared at me incredulously before responding.

"Why are you laughing?! This is serious!" I stopped laughing, and looked at her.

"Haven't we had this conversation before? I'm alright, aren't I? Trust me, annoying fairy, I wouldn't have jumped unless I knew for a fact that my plan would work." The fairy just grumbled.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it." I laughed again as I lay there. I stayed like that for a while. The adrenaline rushing through me had been a bit euphoric, and I wanted to regain my composure before continuing.

After a few moments of silence, my fairy said, "Well, now that we're down here, where do you think we should go?" I pushed myself up to a sitting position and took a look at my surroundings. Just a little to my right was a weird little mound of dirt that if I stood on it, would be crushed under my weight. Ahead of me was the body of water that I landed in, but there was also an enclosure that was too high for me to get to. At least, for the time being. To my left, there was a little river of water, which looked a bit shallower than the rest, and beyond it, another section with a door covered in spider webs.

I shrugged, as I answered, "Um, I think that the only option we really have is that door over there covered in webs."

"How do you suppose we do _that?_ We had to fall from practically 50 meters just to break the other one," my fairy said, incredulously.

"I don't know, but I'm sure we can figure something out." I pulled myself up into a standing position. The fairy did have a point though. We had no real way of breaking the web. My sword wouldn't do anything, and no other weapon that I owned would do anything either. I sighed. This was going to be troublesome.

I turned around to face the inaccessible door and out of the corner of my eye, I saw an unlit torch just sitting there. I smiled. That was the one place I forgot to check when I looked at my surroundings. Fire would, at least I _think_, burn the web into nothing. I made a motion toward the torch.

"See? That's the answer to our problems."

"Link, the thing isn't lit. Unless you have some magical way of lighting it, then I say we're back to square one," She said mockingly. I muttered a curse under my breath. Dumb fairy. Always has some way of ruining my plans. I leaned on the wall and began to think. After what felt like hours, I still hadn't come up with anything that might be able to light the stupid torch on fire. I felt like screaming in frustration. I was about to ask my fairy for her opinion on things, but it opened it's mouth first.

"You know, that mound of dirt looks suspicious," The fairy whispered, almost to herself. I gave her a dumb look.

"It's a _pile_ _of_ _dirt_. It isn't going to help us."

"Yeah, but don't you think it's strange that the entire ground is level except for that _one_ little pile of dirt?" I rolled my eyes.

"If it makes you happy, maybe you'd like me to go level the ground over there? I mean if the stupid thing is bothering you _that_ much then I should probably do something about it, so we can concentrate on _important _things. Like lighting the torch." She gritted her teeth.

"Maybe you should. I might just be right this time, Link." I walked over to the pile of dirt, smiling. My fairy can be so ridiculous, sometimes. What can a pile of dirt have to do with lighting the stupid torch?

Once I reached it, I decided to first crush it by stepping on it with my foot. As my foot came down on the mound of dirt, the dirt fell and immediately became level with the ground. _What? _My mouth gaped open. This whole time, this thing was actually an over-sized _button?_ I heard something behind me , so I turned around and, much to my surprise, the torch was now lit.

My fairy was having a fit of laughter now.

"And you thought that was just a pile of dirt! Ha! I _told_ _you_ so! Maybe next time you'll listen to me without all that sarcastic crap!"

"Shut up, Fairy," I grumbled. Well, now that the torch was lit I could get back to exploring. That's the bright side, at least. As I neared the torch I pulled out a Deku stick. That was probably the only item I have that would hold fire easily enough to make it to the web. I was about to reach the torch when, all of a sudden, I felt vibrations in the ground. I immediately jumped back, put away the stick, and pulled out my sword and shield.

A second later, a _Deku_ _Baba _emerged from the ground. I quickly destroyed it in almost the exact same way I killed the other one. Once that was over, I continued what I was doing before and lit the Deku stick on fire. I approached the edge, looked down, jumped in a shallow expanse of water, and jumped again to the other stretch of land. I ran to the web and was about to burn it, when a thought occurred to me.

"Hey, we're in a _tree_. If I light this on fire, won't the Deku Tree catch on fire too?" She chuckled.

"The Great Deku Tree may be a tree, but he isn't flammable. Even in his weakened state he can easily keep himself from burning." She nodded in assurance.

"Okay, just making sure." I put the stick right next to the web and watched as it caught on fire and crumbled before my eyes. I smiled. "Cool."

"Link! Watch the stick!" I turned and looked at my stick. Or, at least, what was left of it. It was pretty much about to completely disintegrate in my hands, so I dropped it, eliminating the chance of me getting disintegrated along with it.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

I now looked at the door. Time to continue, I guess. I approached the door and just like all the others, it opened by itself. The next rooms were all pretty much the same thing. All I had to do was figure out some puzzle that opened the way to the next room. I was beginning to get tired of it when we entered a room that had more web-blocked paths and torches.

The torches were in the middle of the room, four of them, arranged in a perfect square. There was a mound of dirt in the middle of them and I had a feeling I knew what it was for. Ahead of the torches, were two web-blocked passageways. One of them was blocking a door and the other one was blocking a tunnel that was similar to the one I had to crawl through to get my sword. I walked over to the dirt pile and stepped on it, activating the torches. I took a Deku stick out of my bag and sighed. This was my fourth one. That leaves me with six after this. I need to hurry this up and get more.

I lit it and began to walk toward one of the webs when something wet landed on me.

"What the-" I looked up before I could finish the sentence and found myself speechless. There was a freaky looking creature, staring and drooling. It had two legs that were holding up a huge eye. I would say that it had three legs, but the third one was in the back and being held up in the air, kind of like a tail.

_Gross._

I slowly drew my sword and shield and checked the other parts of the ceiling for anymore. There were another three, all staring at me in the same way _it_ was. Then, without warning, the one above me fell down, probably in an attempt to squish me. I back-flipped away and, right when the thing landed, I rammed my sword deep into its eye.

I didn't get to enjoy my victory, though. Now the other three were on the floor, preparing to pounce on me. I readied myself for their attack. Defending from three enemies was definitely going to be tricky. Focusing on three opponents at once, is something that even an expert swordsmen would have trouble doing.

While I was thinking of a way to attack them, one of them commenced their offense. It leaped incredibly high and attempted to land on me. I simply jumped to the side and attempted to attack his vulnerable eye. I had to break off my attack though, so that I could avoid another monster's attack.

I leaped to the left and barely avoided the monster. I immediately checked for the third and saw him also trying a jump attack. I rolled towards him, causing the monster to jump over me. When I recovered from the roll, I turned around to face my attackers, only to be met with a leg in my face. The creature's kick was definitely powerful and knocked me back a few meters. I landed on my back and groaned in pain.

"Get_ up!_ Those creatures will kill you if you stay down!" The fairy pleaded.

"_Shut up!_ You weren't the one that was just kicked in the face!" I lifted my hands to my face and found out it was bleeding. _Goddesses_, that sucks. I took a peek over at the spiders and saw that they were looking at me stupidly. _Waiting._

This filled me with anger. They were showing me _mercy!_ I slowly pulled myself up and gave them a determined, if not a somewhat _dark_, look. I wasn't going to be so weak that monsters like _them_ would have to show me mercy. I picked up my sword and shield. By the end of this battle, I swore to myself, these things will be begging for mercy, not _me!_

I bolted toward them with a new strategy in mind. I knew from past experience that keeping on the defense and waiting for an opening wasn't going to work. With three opponents continually attacking, there were no openings. So, if I can't stay on defense, then the only thing to do is continue on offense.

When I met the first one it tried to kick me again, but I ducked and stabbed its eye. This made the creature squeal in pain and die. It's dying cry gave me more will-power and strength.

I then made an attempt at the second monster. It tried to scurry back to avoid me, but I was quickly catching up to it. While I was running after that one, the other leaped high in the air, obviously trying to land on me again. This time though, instead of rolling away, I stuck my sword up so that the monster landed directly onto the sword, killing it instantly.

Now that there was only one left, I promptly ran toward it, hoping for an easy kill. The monster had different plans though. It jumped onto the wall and climbed back onto the ceiling before I could even reach it. I smiled wickedly. I _knew_ that they would be the ones begging for mercy at the end of this.

My smile grew even more as I realized that there was no place it could go that would make it safe. I put away my sword and shield, and pulled out my slingshot. I aimed for its eye, fired, and nailed my target. It fell down with a shriek and died.

"Wow...that was some cool fighting, Fairy boy," said my fairy. I turned and gave her an inquisitive look.

"Why do you call me that?"

She paused for a second, before responding, "What?"

"Fairy boy."

The fairy laughed. "Well, isn't it obvious? Because you have a fairy, retard!"

I shrugged. "I guess I'm just used to being called, _'Mr. No Fairy' _by Mido."

"You'll get used to it, but right now let's get this over with." I nodded.

"Agreed." I looked over to the stick I had been forced to let go of, and groaned inwardly as I saw a little pile of ashes in it's place. Those stupid monsters cost me a stick. Dang it! Now I only have five left. "What the heck were those _things_, anyway?"

The fairy just shrugged. "No idea." I decided to drop that subject, since it seemed the fairy had just as much of an idea of what those things were as I did, and decided to focus on the task at hand.

I pulled another stick out and lit it the same way I had before. Once that was done, I walked over to the two web-blocked paths.

"Which path should we take," asked the fairy. I shrugged.

"Let's take the one with the door. I don't feel like crawling through a tunnel, anyway." With that I burned that web and entered the new room. This room was a dead-end, except for the little pink flower that stood alone in the middle of it. I knew what was coming, so I took out my shield and prepared to defend myself.

Soon enough, the _Deku Scrub_showed itself. The Scrub was obviously unaware of the defeat of its brethren because it wasted no time in firing a Deku seed at me. I easily blocked it with my shield and it bounced back to the scrub. It nailed him in the face, causing him to yelp, jump out of his flower, and run away.

I gave chase and caught up to it after a few laps around the room. Trapped, the Scrub stopped to face me.

"Stop! Please, spare my life! If you show me mercy, I'll tell you something useful."

I expected this, and pretended to think about it before saying, "Sure."

"Well," the Scrub gulped, before continuing. "You'll never be able to beat my brothers ahead if you don't defeat them in this order, _2-3-1_. Twenty-three is number one!" Once it said that, it immediately took off for the exit.

"Well, that seems pretty useless,"I said to no one in particular.

"Eh, it'll probably be useful later. You never know." I sighed.

"Another thing that was useless was this room. I guess we'll just have to go through the stupid tunnel. I hate those things."

I made my way back to the torches, lit another Deku stick, leaving me 4 in total, and lit the other web on fire. Once the web was gone, I crawled through the tunnel and entered the next room. I immediately recognized it. It was the room that I landed in after breaking that first web. This time though, I was in the area that was too high for me to access before. In this area there was a web blocking a hole in the ground, similar to the one I had to break to get down here in the first place. I knew I needed fire to burn it, and since I already knew about the torch in this room, all I needed to do was figure out a way to get back up after lighting it.

I looked over at the edge noticed a huge block and immediately knew what to do. I ran over to it and pushed it over the edge. It landed in the water with a splash. It was too tall to sink, however, so it stayed there, like a giant step that I could use to gain means of entry to this area if I went to the lower areas of this room.

I jumped down and went for the torch. When it was on fire I used the block to get back to the upper area. I went back to the web and lit it on fire. The web disappeared under me, instigating another fall into the darkness.

Luckily, there was a body of water below me, so I sustained no damage from the fall. I quickly found my way out of the over-sized puddle, scowling. I hated water. I got up and saw three pink flowers in front of a door. I took out my shield and waited for the scrubs to reveal themselves.

This must have been what the Deku Scrub was talking about before, I thought. If what he said was true than I would have to beat number two, then three, and number one. I smiled. _Twenty-three is number one._

The first one appeared and the other two followed soon after. They exchanged glances with each other and nodded. I'd never fought more than one of these before, so I was a bit wary about how they worked together.

After a pause, they fired and I raised my shield to block them. Once they hit the shield though, they bounced off and since they were so close together they collided and broke. Seeing this, I figured that I should use the shield to block only the one I want to reflect back to the original sender. To do that though, I would either have to dodge the incoming seeds or block the unwanted ones with my sword or both. I sighed. It would probably have to be both.

I now took out my sword alongside my shield. They continued to try and pelt me with their projectiles, but I either dodged or blocked them. The second one was holding back, probably trying to avoid getting hit, so it was hard for me to actually get one to reflect back to him.

A few more minutes of dodging caused me to curse since I realized that he wasn't going to fire. Well, I thought, if he isn't going to shoot at me, then I'll just have to bring it to him. I stepped back a suitable distance, so that I would have enough time to clearly see any missiles trying to ram me, and awaited their next attack.

The scrubs paused for a second, as if trying to figure out what I had planned, before they continued their attack normally again. I waited for the first one to come and I blocked it with my sword. The second came rapidly and I raised my shield to block it. This time though, I blocked at an angle so that I wouldn't send it back to the original sender, but in the direction of the scrub in the middle.

The scrub's eyes widened in horror as the Deku seed nailed him in the face. He swung his body around and started shaking rapidly while squealing. When it didn't stop I payed it no mind and just focused on the other two.

They were watching me, warily. From the look in their eyes, I guessed that they were going to be a lot more careful, now. I took an involuntary step back, hoping that their new assault wouldn't be _too_ harsh. Without warning, they started up again.

I sidestepped, jumped, blocked, and did basically _anything_ I needed to, in order to keep from getting hit. Between all the seeds, there was not enough time to concentrate well enough to reflect one of them back to the scrub I now needed to hit. Every time I thought I had it, another projectile came out of nowhere and I had to stop my attack short.

After 10 minutes of dodging, I was beginning to tire a little. The whole journey was beginning to catch up to me and even though I had amazing stamina even _I_ couldn't go on forever. I needed to end this quickly, and I knew that relying on reflecting a seed wasn't going to do it.

When I had a small second to myself I put away my sword and shield. The scrubs never stopped to ponder what I was planning, instead they kept going with their offense. I waited for the next minuscule break in their offense and pulled out my slingshot.

While I was eluding their onslaught I tried to aim for the third scrub, which wasn't easy. I had to keep moving, which in effect, ruined my accuracy. Once I was sure that it was good enough, I let the seed fly. It met its target quickly and the scrub reacted in pretty much the same fashion as the other one.

That left only one and I knew I had already won. What surprised me though, was when the scrub, instead of continuing its assault, jumped out of its flower and ran _towards_me. I was a little confused by this since not a single Deku scrub had ever done this. Rather than waiting for it to get to me, I took aim with my slingshot and fired.

The scrub jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding my shot. This sent a chill down my spine as I had never seen a scrub move like that. It was already very close to me by the time I recovered from my bewilderment.

Once I had, however, I knew that I had a close range fight coming. Realizing this, I put away my slingshot and pulled out my sword and shield. As it was about to come into contact with me it began to spin viciously. I backed up and tried my best to raise my shield in time.

I didn't succeed completely. I blocked most of it, but the little that got through cut me up and I got plenty of splinters due to the stupid scrub being made of wood. I openly cursed at the scrub and once the attack was over, I counter-attacked with a stab to its face.

The surprises don't stop, do they?

Just as my sword neared its face it ducked down low and brought over itself its own wooden shield which encompassed its whole body. My sword just bounced off of it and I stared at the scrub with a clear look of disbelief on my face. How the _heck_ did he pull something like _that_ out of nowhere? Once I thought about it though, I realized that I could do that too. Maybe he had a magic bag like mine.

The attempted strike had brought me very close to the scrub and, because of that, when the scrub brought its shield back up, clipped me in the chin. I fell back, the full force of the blow making me feel like passing out. My body landed with a thud on the cold dirt floor and the scrub, realizing how he could use this to his advantage, ran to finish me off.

I slowly raised my head and saw his approach. I gripped my sword tightly, waiting for him to get closer. Once he got close enough, I used what little energy I had left, to jump up and slap him with the blunt side of the sword. I moved too quickly for the scrub to react and he received the full force of the blow, which sent him flying in a sideways spiral. Once he landed, he got up and ran away like any weak scrub I had seen before him.

I forced myself to run after him and slowly, but surely, I caught up to him. Once I did he turned to me and said, "Please, don't kill me!" I stopped and caught my breath before replying.

"And why shouldn't I?" The scrub whimpered a little before finally stuttering it's response.

"Be- becau- because I ca- I can tell you how to defeat _Queen_ _Gohma!_" This response surprised me as I didn't really know who or _what,_ _Queen Gohma_ was. I thought about it for a second before I responded.

"Fine." I gave the scrub time to catch up on his breathing, because it seemed like he was hyperventilating. He took a little too long though. "_Well?_" I said impatiently. He stopped himself and finally got around to answering me.

"Well, you won't be able to beat her in a straightforward fight. What you need to do is attack her while she's stunned." Right after he said that, he ran off along with his two other buddies. "Oh, _I'm sorry,_ my Queen!"

I watched him run off and once he was completely out of sight, I was able to concentrate on the pain my wounds were giving me. The fairy, amazingly enough, had stayed quiet throughout that whole battle. I dropped myself onto the ground in a sitting position and looked at her.

"Are you okay? You're usually are a _bit_ more talkative than this." Sarcasm lightly coating my words. My voice seemed to snap her out of her trance and she began to return my look.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking." After a while of staring at me the fairy continued in a surprised voice. "What happened to _you?_ You're all cut up." I gave her an incredulous, and somewhat annoyed look.

"You were spaced out!? That long?! I Almost got my butt kicked by a _single _Deku Scrub! A single one! I've never seen a scrub attack like that!" My fairy gave a small sigh and muttered something.

"What?"

"You probably ran into a Warrior Scrub. These Deku Scrubs actually have close combat training." She paused a second. "Did it get you with a spin attack? Usually that's a Warrior scrub's most dangerous attack." I nodded.

"Yeah, it really stings. That stupid attack also sent splinters all throughout my body." The fairy whistled.

"You should probably get those out before you continue." I gave her a glare.

"Well, no _Duh!_" My fairy sighed.

"Just get on with it." I gave her another death glare, but complied with her request anyway. I removed the ones along my arm and legs. It took a while and each one that I pulled out made me flinch because of the pain, but at long last I finally got rid of the splinters that encompassed my exposed flesh. There were still others below my tunic.

"Um...Fairy?" She looked down at me.

"What?" She glanced at me, and then continued in an irritated tone, "And my name's Navi!!"

"I...kinda need you to turn around."

"Why?"

"I got to take off my tunic to reach the other splinters and I don't feel comfortable with you _watching_ me." The fairy laughed.

"Are you serious? You're just going to be in your underwear, right? And besides, I'm a fairy! Just think about it this way. You're taking off your tunic in front of a _much_ smarter supernatural being."

"I'm not just going to be in my underwear!" I took a nervous pause before continuing. "He managed to get splinters into my _uh_, let's just say more _private _areas." The fairy stared at me for nearly a full minute, before exploding into hysterical laughter.

"You got...splinters..._**there**?_" she managed to say in between guffaws. "Oh goddesses, this is hilarious! I can't believe I _missed_ that!" I shot her an annoyed look.

"Shut up! They hurt like crazy!"

She took a moment to breath before asking, "You don't seem to show any real pain. What's _that_ about?"

"I'm just _really_ good at masking it. Now, will you turn around so I can get this over with!?"

The fairy chuckled before saying, "Yeah, sure, whatever." She fluttered around in a semi-circle and stayed put. Once I was satisfied that she wasn't going to turn around I began to undress. I had to be careful in taking off my tunic because many of my wounds were still fresh and if any of the splinters were disturbed than I would get a sharp burst of pain. Especially if they were in my lower/middle area.

Now that I had my clothes off, I began to carefully remove the chips of wood stuck in me. Each one that I removed caused me to cringe. When I got to my more _private areas _each one that I pulled out made me yelp. Much to my dismay, my fairy didn't seem to have any sympathy for me.

"Will you keep your trap shut while doing that! Goddesses, you're annoying." I didn't even dignify that with a response and just kept going. After maybe twenty minutes I finally finished and got dressed again.

"You can turn around now, Fairy." I said in a mocking-tone of voice.

"About time." I just rolled my eyes, glad that it was finally over, and looked over at the room the scrubs had been so diligently guarding.

"Do you think Queen Gohma is in there?" She bobbed in a shrugging motion.

"Probably. Let's proceed with caution." I nodded and approached the door. Once I got close enough, it magically opened, and I entered the darkness.

The room had an eerie feel to it. There was an unnatural fog that blanketed the floor, and random pillars that seemed to hold the ceiling up. The surface of the ground didn't look wooden like the other rooms in the Deku tree. It felt more stone-like, which was a little weird, considering we were in a _tree_.

My nose wrinkled up as I took a whiff of the scent in the room. I nearly gagged. The room smelled like...well, I couldn't even _place_ the smell. It was so different and more disgusting than anything I'd ever experienced.

Weird smells aside, I couldn't find anything that would be useful in this room. It was pretty much empty. I strained my ears to see if I could pick up anything, but they failed to do so. All the evidence was telling me that nothing was in here, yet I couldn't shake this feeling in my gut that told me to stay alert. I felt that if I even let my guard down for a second, my life would be forfeit.

I was about to walk into the middle of the room when the fairy called out. She probably saved my life.

"Link! Above you!" I was almost getting used to things attacking me from the ceiling and easily leaped backwards, avoiding a large monster that attempted to squash me. I slid as the monster hit the ground and backed up a suitable distance before sizing it up.

She was almost exactly like the other creatures that had attacked me before except for the fact that she was _much_ bigger. The large creature had two legs that held up a large eye and a long thing_,_ that resembled a scorpion's dangerous tail, in the back. This creature also had very long and defined pincers that hung threateningly under her eye. I smiled.

"So this is _Queen Gohma?_"

"Don't take her lightly," My fairy said cautiously. "Better to overestimate your opponent, than to underestimate him, I think." I nodded. My sword and shield came off my back and into my hands as I prepared for a hazardous fight.

The queen made the first move.

It lunged forward and took a try at my upper-body. I almost didn't react quickly enough and barely managed to roll to the side. I completed my roll and turned around to await her next attack. Much to my surprise, she wasn't on the ground any more, but was traveling rapidly along the wall.

As I watched her move, I realized that I couldn't hear her movements. It was like I was deaf and that wasn't good. I relied on my hearing to help anticipate an opponent's maneuvers. Now that, _that_seemed to be neutralized, I would have to rely on my sight. And to do that, I had to keep my eyes on Gohma, which produced, yet another problem. From what I've witnessed while fighting Gohma for this short time, she has incredible speed. Being in the condition I am, it would be easy for her to get in one of my blind spots.

She pounced from the wall she was perched on, and tried to ram me on foot. Since I couldn't match her speed, I decided to fight her head on. I met her charge, but, right as we were about to collide, I threw myself on the ground and slid under her. As I slid, I brought my sword up to swipe at her legs. The sword connected and I felt the friction as the sword slid under her. I used my forward momentum as a means to launch myself back up into a standing position, once I was out from under her.

I turned to face her, only to find her right in my face. Her big, bulging eye was right there in front of me, and for a second I couldn't breathe. This couldn't possibly be happening! I cut her legs! Shouldn't that slow her down?

The leg I thought I had cut was now rising and kicked me in the face. If I was to describe the other ones kick as painful, than I think they haven't come up with a word adequate enough for this kind of feeling. I flew backwards and crashed into the wall that had been meters behind me. The impact left an Link-shaped imprint in the wall and I felt more breath than I could spare being knocked out of my lungs.

I was hyperventilating against the wall, trying to get all my air back. All the while, my enemy had begun its approach. It had knocked me across the whole room, which was quite a feat, so even at full speed, it would take her a couple of seconds to reach me. The good news was she wasn't moving at full speed, and that gave me a few more seconds to myself.

As she came closer, I tried to find a way to attack. I couldn't run away. If I did, it would just end badly. I was in no condition to make any quick movements, and I needed to figure out a way to buy more time for my recovery. The only delay weapon I had, I realized, was a Deku nut. I pulled one out and awaited her.

Once she was at a suitable distance, I threw it down on the ground and covered my eyes. That was a good choice on my part, considering the damage I had done to her. She was twitching on the ground and at that moment I realized how the scrub's words tied into this situation.

"_Attack her while she is stunned._" is what he had said. At first I thought that he had just said anything to get out of death, but it made sense now. The Queen's eye is the way she sees through the darkness, and she counts on that, in the same way I count on my hearing. Not only that, but her eye is a very intricate part of her body, it looks like. Almost like my brain, I'd guess. If I damage that eye to the point that it is useless, than her defenses, _like the thing that kept me from damaging her legs,_ shut down. If I try to attack without first stunning her in her eyes, then I'll be sure to lose.

Gohma stayed stunned just long enough for me to recover from her attack. I stopped leaning against the wall and tried to balance on my two feet. While I was trying to balance, Gohma was barely starting to get up. She looked like she was having as much trouble as _me_. My sword and shield were lying on the ground, since I had let them go when I crashed into the wall, and I picked them up. Gohma was now ready to attack again and she was giving me a very _angry_ glare. I scoffed.

"You're complaining about _that!?_You kicked me against a wall! It's just payback." Gohma didn't seem to understand me, and just continued to glare. While I was grateful for her hesitance to attack, it still kind of annoyed me. I wanted to get this over with, and this deadlock wasn't helping.

My impatience got the best of me, and I began to run towards her. When I reached her, I swung my sword for her eye. I needed to create an opening, then use the nut. If I tried to use one prematurelym then Gohma would probably just dodge it, and that would waste ammunition.

She swiftly dodged backwards, and I just continued my assault, swinging my sword in rapid movements that hardly gave my opponent any breathing room. She dodged them all perfectly, showing no openings, and showing no signs of tiring. I, on the other hand, was exhausted. All this movement wasn't doing my physical energy any good, but I willed myself to continue anyway.

Even though I was giving it my all, I could still feel my gestures becoming sluggish. I feared that if I kept going, I wasn't going to be able to fight at all, soon. Seeing this, I terminated my onslaught and prepared to be on the defense.

Gohma wasted no time in trying to kill me, again. I had to keep blocking and dodging, but I knew I couldn't keep that up for long. Even though it technically wasn't a smart idea, I concluded that I should use the nuts now, or else I wouldn't be among the living for much longer. I put away my sword, and exchanged it for a nut.

I noticed a slight pause of hesitation as she saw the nut, but she continued her offense, anyway. While I was in mid-dodge, I threw the nut down, but much to my dismay, Gohma was no longer anywhere near when the nut exploded.

I immediately turned and saw that she was already behind me. _What?!_ She tried to kick me in the same fashion as before, but I ducked it and back-flipped away. This display of power told me something that I didn't want to accept. Not only was she faster than me, but she had been holding back this _entire_ fight. This angered me to no end.

If it was going to fight me, it should fight me without mercy!

Then a more disturbing thought came into my mind. How can I possibly defeat this thing when I could barely keep up with it?! Not only that, but it was more powerful than I was. All the odds were against me, yet my fairy and the Deku tree had sent me in here to kill this thing, anyway. It's true that they may not have known how dangerous this thing was, but I seriously doubted that. Did they actually expect me to win?! Was this some sort of cruel _joke?!_ What could they possibly see in me?! _I'm letting them down**.**_

The fairy must have sensed my despair, for she cried out to me. I couldn't make out what she was saying. I didn't _want_ to. I was too lost in my fear _**(**I don't want to die**)**_, confusion _**(**Why me?**)**_, and anger _**(**I'm not enough**)**_. I felt helpless. I was panicking.

I knew it. And I hated myself for it.

I didn't have much energy left to fight at all, and I knew that this had to end quickly. I began to pull my Deku nuts out and dispose of them quickly. Gohma quickly, and easily, dodged each and every single one of them. I was on my second to last one, and I quickly threw it just like all the others. Gohma didn't keep away from me this time, though.

She rushed in as quickly as she could, and, while barely avoiding the blast of the nut, picked me up with her large tail. Once she had me grasped tightly, she pinned me against the wall. The force of being thrown against it was _almost_ enough to knock me out.

While I lay there, _trapped_, the world seemed to slow down.

Navi was next to me, screaming again. "_Link!_Get out of there! You have to keep fighting!" She continued screeching at me, but I couldn't hear her anymore. The sound was distorted and my vision was beginning to get blurry. I saw Gohma's sharp pincers getting closer and I slowly closed my eyes. Once they were shut, I found myself in a position I would never have expected.

* * *

I was now in a dark room. I was sitting on a comfortably cushioned chair with two similar recliners in front of me. In between the chairs was a small furnished table that held three cups, a bottle of wine, and a candle, which seemed to be this room's only source of light. Everything else around me was black, and impossible for me to see. If the idea weren't preposterous, I would have said that there was no floor and that I was floating in the darkness.

To me the strange thing wasn't _where_ I was, but how at _peace_ I felt. For some reason, I felt that this had happened a million times before, and that was what I found a bit more disturbing to me.

"You done wondering what happened, yet?" The sudden voice surprised me a little, and I turned to face its source. Sitting in one of the chairs was now a woman who, I knew for certain, wasn't there _before._ She had hair as dark as the room itself, was tall, probably about a foot taller than I was, and wore a dress that supported her dark theme. When I looked at her, she seemed to send vibes of fear at me, and it took a _lot_ of will power just to keep up eye contact.

"Not gonna talk, Eh?" Her voice was not as high-pitched as the girls I knew, it was more deep, but was in no way as deep as a man's. You could hear, very well, the femininity in her words. "Well, that's okay, I guess. I'm just kind of wondering why someone so young is with _me._ Then again, you probably don't even know where you are, do you?" I didn't really want to, but I figured I might as well answer her.

"No, I don't. I was getting killed in a battle, and then I closed my eyes, only to find myself here when I opened them." I said that as if it was something that happened every day, and was no big deal, which creeped me out a little. She tilted here head to the side.

"What was someone so young, doing in such a life threatening battle?" I paused to consider that question, and how to answer it. Why _was_I in that battle? The simple answer would be that I was doing the Deku tree a favor, but is that _really_ why I accepted this duty?

"I was doing it to test my courage." I said, suddenly sure of it. Her lips curled into a smile, as she heard my response.

"You are so young, though. Why would you be worried about something like _that?_" This question irritated me.

"Enough with the questions!" Her smile didn't disappear like I expected it, but I continued anyway. "I have questions to ask you, too. Like, where the heck am I?!" Her smile just grew.

"You should _know_ where we are, Link." My eyes narrowed.

"How do you know my name?"

"That isn't important." She stood up and walked towards the table. "Would you like something to drink?" I was about to respond to her, but she didn't seem to want me to. "I'll just give you some anyway." This lady was starting to piss me off.

"Why haven't you answered any of my questions! I've answered, at least, two of yours, and you won't answer a single one of mine! Until you answer at least one of my questions, I won't speak to you!" I crossed my arms, and waited for her response in a way that was reminiscent to a toddler throwing a fit. The woman just laughed and that annoyed me. "Why are _you_ laughing?!"

"I thought you said you weren't going to talk to me?" I blushed, as I realized I had given in to her trick, so easily.

"Yeah_...well_, I changed my mind, I guess." She chuckled lightly, and for some reason, it sent shivers down my spine.

"Okay, then, Fairy boy, I'll answer one of your questions. Choose wisely, what you ask of me." I was about to blurt out a question that I had asked before, but I bit my lips. Sure, I _did_ want to know the answer to those questions, but was that the _best_ question I could think of?

The woman, while she was waiting for my question, uncorked the wine bottle and filled two glasses. She then handed one to me, and went to take her own seat, again. I was about to sip the wine when I thought about the Kokiri standards.

As a Kokiri, it is allowed to drink alcoholic beverages when you reach a certain age. Since Kokiris are full grown at the age of twelve that is generally the accepted age. I shrugged. I turned twelve today, it should be fine. I brought the liquid up to my lips, and devoured it.

I was supposed to feel the cool liquid run into my mouth, and down my throat, yet I didn't feel _anything._ My mouth still felt as dry and empty as it was before. I looked down at the wine inside my cup. The cup was less full than it had been _before_ I drank it, but I didn't drink any. Or, at least, I didn't _feel_ myself drink it. That's when I realized where I was.

"I'm in my own subconscious mind...aren't I?" She looked up, obviously surprised at what I said.

"Is that your question?" I gave her a glare.

"No." She slouched back in her chair.

"Then I won't answer it." I pretty much figured she would say that, but I was also pretty sure that I, at least, had the right idea.

"Why am I here?" She stayed silent for a second.

"Is that your question?" I sighed.

"Yes." She smiled, and leaned forward in her seat.

"I don't know. You tell me." This angered me, but right as I was about to chew her out, something unexpected happened. Her eyes, they pierced into me and I felt _fear_. Fear as intense as the fear that I felt the night I almost died, in the Lost woods by the river. It caused me to fall backwards in my seat, and I finally realized who she was. If this was my subconscious mind, then she must represent something of important motivation to me. Something that has, recently, fueled my actions. That woman must represent my most hated emotion: _**Fear**_.

It was the reason that her every look sent chills my way, and the reason I had a hard time keeping up eye contact.

"You...you...what are _you_ doing here?" Fear didn't get up from her seat, but she continued to give me her dark, creepy stare. She chuckled.

"That question has an identical response to the one I gave you before. Why _you_ are here, and why _I_ am here, are entirely dependent on you." I was taken aback by that answer.

"Are you saying that you know nothing?!" She shrugged.

"I guess you could say that." I leaned back in my chair. This was my psyche. I controlled everything. Even though, this isn't what I would think my own mind would look like, it _was_ my mind and, so, technically, when I talk to this woman, I'm talking to myself. It's stupid to ask myself something that I don't even know myself.

"What's the point in talking to you?" She shrugged again.

"Sometimes to discover something about yourself, you have to seriously _examine_ yourself." I took that in and I realized that I had just asked myself a question again, but this time I knew it.

"Then, I guess I'll allow you to continue your interrogation that I interrupted before." She gave my a creepy little smile.

"Well then, before I was interrupted you told me that you were testing your courage and I asked you, why would someone so young be worried about something like that?" I sighed. I didn't even know _why_ I was so worried about that. Was it because of how I almost got killed? I almost _died_ because I couldn't defend myself, and I had to depend on other people to rescue me..._**again**_. I can't believe I didn't see this before. It was because of _him_. I can't believe I'd almost forgot. That night, one week ago, wasn't the only time I had been rescued.

"I _see_. It's because of _Jeb_, isn't it?" she said, with a sly smile on her face. I threw myself at her, and gripped her neck, tightly.

"Don't you _**ever**_ say his name again! You hear me!? If you do-" She laughed, interrupting me.

"You'll do what? _Kill_ me?" I'll calmed down, slowly taking in deep breaths. When I realized how stupid I had been, I let her go, and sat back down. When I did though, I smiled.

"Why are _you_ smiling?" I looked her in the eyes.

"You represent fear to me, yet I charged you, and even threatened to kill you." As I said this, I realized what I could use to repel the fear.

_**Anger**_.

Anger is stronger than fear, and I also knew for a _fact_that anger gave you power. I thought back to the fight I had with the miniature Gohmas. When I'd realized how they showed me mercy, I became angry. That anger gave me the power, and _cruelty_, to finish them off quickly.

If I had power, than I would have no reason to fear. I wouldn't have to be rescued, and watch as people I _cared_ about _die_, saving me. If I became strong enough, then I could maybe even save them. The thought of having no fear intoxicated me, and I'm pretty sure the woman in front of me noticed.

"The path you are choosing to follow is a dark one." I gave her a sinister look.

_"So be it."_ She was about to say something else, when she was interrupted by another voice.

"Don't try to take him off the path he himself has chosen, Fear." I took a look, and in the other chair that had been empty this whole time, was another woman. The woman sitting before me now, had fiery red hair, fair skin, a tight, revealing dress, and a much prettier face than Fear did. I had a pretty good idea what she must represent, but I asked her anyway.

"Let me guess, you must represent _**Power**?_" She gave me a seductive smile.

"Yes, I do." I looked her over. Power was definitely more attractive than Fear. Fear finally decided to get back into the conversation.

"What are _you_ doing here?" I decided to answer that one.

"You both represent something that motivate my actions greatly now. I figure that Fear was here first, because she motivated me more, first. And now that I have a _new_ goal and direction, which is power, that is why a new person has entered." Fear gave me a look that said, "_Well, no duh"._

What she _actually_ said, was different though. "Link, Power is a treacherous thing, she _looks_ good, but in actuality, she will _destroy_ you in the end." Power, after hearing her words, leaned back in her chair and looked at me confidently.

"Don't listen to Fear. She just wants you to continue to live like a _coward_. You don't want to be a coward, do you?" The words rolled off of her tongue hypnotically, and I found myself entranced by her.

"No...I don't." Fear tried to get some input into our conversation, but she was cut short by Power.

"Of course, you don't. Seek me out. Don't rest until you do. Do _anything_ you must, until you finally have enough power to _never_ be afraid again." Her eyes filled me with something I couldn't quite understand. Was it purpose? Was it the answer I've been looking for? Would power make me happy? I was about to respond to her, but all of a sudden, the scene around me changed again, and I realized I was no longer there anymore.

I was back in the battle.

* * *

Gohma's pincers were about to crush my face. Navi was still screaming at me. Everything was just how I had left it, yet it was all so very different, now. I was no longer the weak little Kokiri boy that was going to let himself get killed by this beast. I had a new fire in me, one that would not get extinguished so easily. Just as the pincers were about to close in on my head, I sneered.

I caught the pincers while they were in mid-motion, and kept them from obliterating me. Gohma had a surprised look in her single eye, and that just gave me more confidence. I grunted from restraint, as I put all my energy into keeping the pincers from crushing my head.

Gohma continued to apply pressure, but I never gave in. The Queen tightened her grip on my body, which, in turn, made me weaken a little. I had to get out of this grip and fast. I knew that in order to get out of her grip I would need _both_ hands, so I ducked my head and let go of the pincers. They crushed the air that my head _used_ to occupy, and this surprised the Queen.

Once I had both hands, I pulled out my sword, which was still in its sheath, and slashed for her eye. This made her back up instinctively, and involuntarily drop me. I landed perfectly, and immediately darted for my opponent. I put away my sword, and pulled out my last Deku nut.

Gohma didn't look too happy, and this made her unwise, which was what I was counting on. She ran forward, confident that this would be like every other time I foolishly charged her. When we neared each other, she tried to kick me like usual, again, but I leaped over her outstretched leg and right on top of her.

She immediately tried to shake me off, but I had an iron grip. Once I was as comfortable as I could get, I closed my eyes and shoved the nut into her eye. It exploded on impact, and knocked me off, but I quickly recovered. Gohma, on the other hand, lay there twitching, like she had before.

I knew this would be the only chance I had, so I took it. I bolted for the incapacitated Queen, pulled out my sword, and began to uncompassionately beat her eye with my sword. Her shrieks of pain, and horror filled the room, but I didn't stop or hesitate. Not even for a second.

Even after she was long dead, I still beat the corpse. The anger I was feeling toward the creature was strong, and the only thing I felt like doing was beating something.

After a while, I heard my fairy's frightened voice break in. "Link, I...I think you killed it already." When I didn't stop or answer her, she continued. "Link! _Stop!_ You killed it already!" This got me to pause, and I turned my head towards her, and gave her a menacing look. She involuntarily fluttered back. "_Link_, are you _okay?_ What _happened_ to you?"

I breathed in and out, slowly, until I was finally calm enough to answer her.

"I don't know. Just...forget you ever saw this." Navi stared at me.

"S-sure." As she said that. a blue light appeared in the middle of the room. Navi stared at it in wonder. "It's the Great Deku Tree. He's giving us a short cut out." Good, the effects of the battle were beginning to kick in again, and I was feeling in no condition to climb all the way back up the tree. I began to walk into the shining blue light, and I felt tipsy again. It was the same feeling I got when Navi had healed me. I began to fly up into the air, and I shortly found my way outside again.

* * *

******Author's Note: ****This is my first fan-fiction story. Any constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Beta'd by SCARREDxFORxLIFE.**

**Yeah, if you're reading this I would really like your imput, especially on this chapter specifically. It's a relatively important one and so if you have any constructive critisism, it would be very much appreciated. **

**Another thing, I do know that there were no Deku Scrubs in Ocarina of Time that could fight in close combat, but I decided to put them in anyway, because I wanted to make them a bit more tough than they actually were. I based their fighting style on Link's when he was a Deku Scrub in Majora's Mask. Hope you enjoy it.**

**On to the next chapter, I guess. Next chapter there will be some Link and Navi bonding. Yay!**


	6. Bonding

**Legend of a Thief: Ocarina of Time**

**Chapter 6**

* * *

The ground was closing in rapidly. I was falling at a speedy pace and I wasn't showing any signs of slowing down. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the painful landing, but abruptly the speed at which I was falling slowed dramatically. I opened my eyes again and saw the ground slowly coming and then I lightly landed. I quickly checked my surrounding and immediately recognized the area. I was in front of the Deku Tree again.

My fairy was next to me now and for a brief second I wondered if she fell the same way I had. Probably not. The stupid creature could fly. She fluttered her way ahead of me and closer to the Deku Tree. Once she was near, she began to speak to the Deku Tree.

"Great Deku Tree, we finished. We won. The curse has been lifted." The Deku Tree's eyes slowly positioned themselves to look at us.

"Well done, Link." It made me uncomfortable, but I decided to take the compliment anyway. After all, it was hard work.

"Thank you." After a second or two, he continued.

"With the deed you have done, you have verily demonstrated your courage." He let out a deep breath. Was it of relief? "I knew you would be able to carry out my wishes. Now, there is more that you must know, will you listen to my words?"

More? After all that, he wants me to do more? I involuntarily took a step back. How could he want me to do _more?_I almost died trying to do the first thing he asked me to do! I was about to refuse, but something stopped me. It's true that I almost died in there, but was that experience all bad? I came out of it stronger, didn't I? If I continued on the path that the Deku Tree wanted me on, then most likely I would have more affairs like the one I just had. Each of those ordeals would in fact make me more powerful, if I came out of them alive. If I didn't, then, I was so weak I deserved death anyway.

"Sure, I'll listen." The Deku Tree nodded, as best as he can, at least.

"Good. Listen carefully, now, The man who put this curse on me, as you know already, is named Ganondorf. He is a man of the desert and of evil. He has great magical and sorceress powers, which he uses to try and enter the Sacred Realm that is connected to Hyrule. For it is in that Sacred Realm that one will find the divine relic, the Triforce, which contains the essence of the goddesses." I was confused. It made little sense to me since I wasn't well versed in the ancient legends. Making this known to the Deku Tree was probably a good idea.

"You might have to explain a little more than that. I'm kind of confused." I heard a sigh come from the Deku Tree.

"Very well then," he said in a slightly impatient voice. "Before time began, before spirits and life existed, three golden goddesses descended upon the chaos that was Hyrule. Din, the Goddess of Power. Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom. Farore, the Goddess of Courage. Din, with her strong flaming arms, cultivated the land and created the red earth. Nayru, poured her wisdom into the earth and gave the spirit of law to the world. Farore, with her rich soul, produced all life forms that would uphold the law. The three great goddesses, their labors completed, departed for the heavens. Three golden sacred triangles remained at the point the goddesses left the world. Since then, the sacred triangles have become the basis of our world's providence. The resting place for those triangles is called the Sacred Realm. Do you now better understand what I am trying to tell you?"

It was still a little confusing, but I decided I knew enough. "Yeah, I think I got it."

"You must never allow that man to lay his hands on the sacred Triforce. That is your mission, Link." His voice was sounding more and more strained by the second. Why was that? "I guess there is no reason to hide it anymore. Link, although you made valiant efforts to break my curse, I'm afraid you stood no chance of saving me from the beginning. I'm dying."

"Are you serious?! How is that possible?! How can I have failed?! After all that?! If you knew you were doomed from the start, why did you make me go through all that?!" I was angry. Simple as that.

"I told you from the very beginning. It was a test of your courage. It was never about saving me." He took a deep breath before he continued. "I would have called you the night we were attacked, but you were too gravely injured." I staggered back unintentionally. I couldn't believe it. It was _my_ fault.

"If-if I had been ready when you needed me that week ago, would you have lived?" I said that in a whisper, already knowing the answer that would come off his lips. The Deku Tree sighed sadly, obviously contemplating on how to answer that.

"That isn't important, Link. The important thing is that you will be able to continue on your quest." I was feeling a mixture of anger and grief. Mostly grief though. How can he say it didn't matter! I may not have seen him often but as much as I hate to admit it, he's been like a father to me. A really eccentric and hardly ever seen father, but a father nonetheless.

Now, after all I've been through, I would _still_be a failure. It didn't matter what he said. I tested my courage, yet I couldn't saved the person I was meant to save. While I was in there, it didn't feel that important, saving the Deku Tree. Now, though, I realized how important that had been to me. My fairy had called me a hero in there, but I didn't save anyone. Now, after all my efforts, he would still die.

I was a failure.

Those words still echoed in my head as the Deku Tree continued, "To continue your mission properly there are some things you must first do. First, you must leave this forest and find your way to Hyrule Castle. There you will meet the Princess of Destiny. When you reach her you must show her this stone." As if on cue, a brilliant green glow emanated from the base of his trunk, revealing a beautiful emerald. The emerald flew down in front of me magically. Once in front of me, I grabbed it and I immediately felt different. There was something about that stone that made me feel a surge of power. I couldn't use it, but anyone could tell this stone was sacred. It just radiated off of it.

"That is the Kokiri Emerald. It is the object that Ganondorf wanted so badly that he put the death curse on me." I nodded. After the surge of power that went through me, I slowly tore my eyes away from the emerald and looked at the Deku Tree.

"Are there more of these?" The Deku Tree seemed taken aback by that question, but he answered it anyway.

"Yes, time is running short. Ganondorf will no doubt continue to try and get the other two. You must find a way to get them before he does." He paused, as if to build up emphasis for what he said next. "You are the only one who can do this. In legends, that have been long forgotten, they speak of a boy that will eventually carry the fate of Hyrule and many other lands on his shoulder. For the outcome of good or bad is _not _noted. You are the boy of legend. The hero that will hopefully guide us into a time of prosperity. Of course, you still have free will. My question now is, do you accept your fate?" I definitely did not expect that. _Hero?_ How can _I_ be a hero? I'm a thief, not a hero. I didn't want to be a hero. Then a thought crossed my mind. The path of a hero does require power, of course. If a hero has no power, he can't do anything to help anyone. I may not want to be a hero, but that didn't mean I couldn't use this to my advantage.

"Sure."

"Good. Just what I'd expect from the hero." I stood there silently, waiting for him to continue, but nothing happened. After a long while of silence, I was beginning to feel that the worst had happened. Suddenly a fell wind blew across the area and made me shiver. The DekuTree's trunk was beginning to shrivel up and deep down in my heart, I knew he was gone.

"Deku Tree?" I asked.

No answer. The shock resounded throughout my body. He _couldn't_ be dead already. There was no way. My denial was clear, but the sound part of me told me to move on. To continue on the path he wanted me to. To go see the princess.

I slowly turned my back on the Deku Tree, but before I left I gave my goodbyes.

"Good-bye, Great Deku Tree." It was the first time I had ever given him that title vocally and, by the looks of things, it would be the last time. Now, my good-byes complete, I walked away, never looking back.

As I walked I faintly heard my fairy say, "Great Deku Tree, good-bye. I never got to talk to you about the thing that worries me, but I guess it was never meant to be." With that being said, I heard her flutter back to my side, not a word spoken between us.

We were nearing the Kokiri village now and the grief I had buried a little while ago was returning. What was I supposed to tell them? That I failed to save him? That if I hadn't been so weak as to get injured a week ago, then the Deku Tree would still be alive? I didn't want to face them, but I knew they deserved better than that. Although I wasn't very close to them, they were my kinsmen. If I was in their position I would want to be told, too.

I was about to enter the village when the one person I didn't want to see jumped in front of me and blocked my path.

"What do you want, Mido?" The agitation in my voice was obvious, especially since I didn't even bother to mask it. Now that I got a good look at Mido, I noticed that he wasn't wearing his usual cocky smirk. He now had a fearful expression, and even one filled with grief.

"Di-di-did the Great Deku Tree..._die?_" Those words were unexpected and seemed out of personality for him. For a second, I forgot that he was the person I hated, and I felt united with him in grief.

"Y-yeah, he did." I half-expected Mido to burst into to tears, but it seems I got the exact opposite.

"What do you mean, he's dead! I bet you killed him, didn't you?! You killed him just like you killed-" There was no way he was going to finish that sentence. I wasn't going to allow it. My fist jumped up and connected square with his jaw, sending him sprawling into a nearby rock wall. When he collided with the wall he didn't have enough time to recover. I was already there. This time, though, my sword was out and pressed it against his neck.

"Don't-you-_ever_-say-that-again!" I growled. I pressed my sword a little closer, until there was a small trail of blood oozing out of his neck. "Got it?!" Mido was crying now. It was so pathetic. He was so weak, this little quarrel wasn't anywhere near challenging. Saying it was easy was an understatement.

"Ar-ar-are you going to kill me?" With that I just smiled. I felt so in control now, which is a feeling I've been lacking a lot of lately. Everything has happened so quickly, that this one little moment that I could control I had to savor. It didn't last long though.

My fairy was now in front of me screaming, "LINK! STOP THIS _NOW!_" The surprise knocked me back and I lost my balance. To complete my fall, my fairy now rushed forward and pushed me backwards, causing my to fall onto the floor. I looked up at my fairy and gave her a glare.

"Link, this is not what the Great Deku Tree would have wanted! Stop this nonsense! You're supposed to be the hero! Have you forgotten already?!" Something in my fairy's voice made me calm down. Something in the tone of her voice that just soothed me. I was no longer angry. I no longer had any intent to kill. I was just normal again. I didn't know how she did that, but a part of me was glad she had. I was so close to killing Mido and I didn't want to live with that. I _couldn't_ live with that. What he said wasn't his fault. He was right. It was my weakness that killed them. The other part of me was fascinated at how cunning and quickly I had moved. Part of me wanted that back.

That part wasn't in control at this moment, though. I heeded my fairy's words and got up.

"Sorry, Fairy. You're right. This isn't what he would have wanted," I said with my head down. I heard her breath in a sigh of relief. I looked over to Mido, who, from the looks of things, had peed his pants. "Sorry, Mido. You didn't deserve that." He just stared at me and when I figured he wouldn't respond I just continued forward, with my fairy in tow.

There was an awkward silence as I walked forward aimlessly. I felt that my fairy wanted to say something to me, but she was to consumed with her own grief to concentrate on me. Before my confrontation with Mido I was going to adress the rest of the Kokiri and tell them about the Deku Tree's death, but now I wasn't sure if I could. After my little scene, I didn't think I had enough self control to tell them personally. Mido got the message, I'll just let him tell them, I concluded.

That left one thing, I had to get out of here.

I began to head for the exit, at first at a slow walk, but then it began to escalate to a jog. I was now there, freedom before me. The trees were clearing around me and I knew I was almost there. I was so close to being out of this place.

"Link?" The voice stopped me. I knew that voice. There was no way I could mistake it. It was Saria. I turned around to look at her face-to-face. "Where are you going?" There was an edge in her voice, as if she already knew the answer to that question.

"Saria, I'm sorry. I have to go. I can't stay here." She dropped her head down and I saw a small tear roll down her cheeks. "Don't cry, please, don't. I couldn't handle it." The words rolled of my tongue slowly and in a whisper. She heard them though. She always hears what I have to say.

"I'm sorry, Link. I don't want myself to cry either. It's just...somewhere in the back of my head, I knew this day was coming. It's because you're different from my friends and I." I smiled weakly at that remark. Different. It's what I wanted to be, yet why did I feel this way when she acknowledged it? She must have noted the pain in my eyes, because she continued with, "In a good way. If you want to, you can think of it as being special." I gave a small chuckle.

"Maybe, Saria, maybe." She looked me in the eyes and, for a second, I forgot about everything that had happened today. My birthday, nonetheless. At least now I had a better reason for hating this day.

"I want you to have this and I won't take no for an answer." She slowly unhooked her Ocarina off of her belt and reached forward for me to grab it.

"I can't take that. Please, you've already given me my birthday present." She laughed.

"Just think of it as a see-you-later gift. It's not good-bye. I can feel it. We'll meet again, Link." I reached out my hand and took it. The Ocarina was light, but sturdy. It felt good to hold it. As I held it memories of Saria teaching me how to play flowed into me and I realized how much I actually treasured those memories. Those were simple times, not like the days I'm living in now.

"Thank you, Saria." With that being said our eyes met again. We stared at each other for a long time, each one waiting for the other to speak. Finally, Saria rushed forward and wrapped me in her warm embrace. I wanted to pull away, but I knew I couldn't. For the first time ever, I actually returned the hug. As I wrapped my arms around her, I felt the surprise she was feeling through our contact. It was uncomfortable, but I wouldn't see her for a long time, so I wanted to give her my own good-bye present.

Once we finished I pulled away and said, "Good-bye, Saria."

Her eyes were watering and her voice cracked as she said, "See you later, Link." Good-byes said, I turned my back to her and walked away, hoping that I would get to see her again.

* * *

The green grass was nearly endless, with few trees in the expanse. Definitely not a forest. I like it. I'd been walking for a few hours and it was now night. I hadn't found a suitable spot to stop yet and the trip was tiring me out. The reason why I was even able to go this far after undergoing that tribulation in the Deku Tree was, because when the Deku Tree teleported me out of there, he healed me. Or at least, that's what my fairy told me when I had asked her about it.

Despite the lack of visitors to the forest there seemed to be a defined trail that led somewhere, which I was following now. Hopefully it led to the princess. I soon came to a place where there was a tree right next to the road and I figured that would be a good place to stop.

I began to set up camp there, even though I didn't have much to work with. Basically, my camp would consist of a fire. I didn't have any materials for anything else. If I hadn't been in such an emotional mess I probably would have prepared more. Oh well, it's not like I can do anything about it now.

My fairy and I were searching for wood. Well, more specifically, my fairy was. She had sharper eyes than I did in the dark, so she could pinpoint them easier. I would just pick them up and bring them back to camp. Soon we had a good amount and I set about to trying to light them.

A half hour passed by and I still couldn't get them lit. As frustrating as it was though, I kept going. My fairy was obviously getting tired of me trying, as she sighed every five minutes.

"Look, can you just forget about the fire? It won't light. The wood is not dry enough. Just go to sleep, so we can get an early start tomorrow."

"I can do it."

"No you can't. If the wood isn't dry enough then it won't light. Simple as that."

"Then I'll dry it."

"Do you even know how to do that?"

"No, but I'll learn."

"Look, just forget it. Go to sleep. I'm tired and I know you are too."

"Stop reading my emotions! Can't I have something to myself?!"

"Not with the crap you pulled after the Great Deku Tree died! You almost murdered a fellow Kokiri!" That was it. I threw the sticks of wood onto the ground and faced my fairy face-to-face.

"If he was the one with the sword he would have killed me!" My fairy scoffed.

"Again with that excuse. Don't give me that. You don't even believe that, I can tell." I gritted my teeth.

"I told you to stop reading my emotions!"

"And I told you that I wouldn't. You haven't done anything to earn any trust and until you do then I will always be prying at your emotions. Better get used to it, Fairy boy." I took a deep breath and turned away from her.

"Fine. Whatever. I'm just going to go to sleep since you insist on it." With that I set myself on the ground and rolled myself over so I wasn't facing my fairy. Once I was comfortable enough in that position, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. My last thought before going to sleep was that this was the lousiest birthday I'd ever had.

* * *

Morning came quickly. A little too quickly for my taste. All the walking I did yesterday made my legs sore upon waking, so I got up and did some stretching. My fairy was amazingly still asleep and for a brief second I wondered how long she had stayed up last night.

I didn't bother to wake her up since it is more peaceful when she is asleep anyway. Instead I decided to try to make good use of the time. Thing is, I didn't really know what to do. I placed myself under the tree to think. I looked up into the sky and saw the sunrise. It was dazzling in appearance. An excellent mixture of orange, red, purple, and pink. I was content with staring at for awhile, but I soon got restless.

Before I became too bored though, I heard very faintly the sound of running water. The prospect of being able to feel water was tempting and since I had nothing to do I decided to act on it. Leaving quietly, so my fairy wouldn't hear me, I left in the direction of the water. It wasn't too far away and I soon reached it. It was a small river with a weak current. Perfect for taking a quick dip in. I hadn't taken a shower for a full day and I was feeling very unclean at the moment.

I quickly stripped myself down and took my bath. The water was perfect and soothed me quickly. Once I was satisfied I got out and put my clothes back on. I was still wet, so my clothes turned out pretty wet once I put them back on, but I didn't care.

Making my way back to camp was simple and when I got there I surprisingly found my fairy still sound asleep. I spent a second eying her and then I went on to find something else to do. I sat under the tree again, but this time it didn't take long for me to think of something to do.

I slowly unsheathed my sword and began to thrust it toward the tree. It connected quickly and I continued to endlessly strike it. I figured that if I was supposed to take on the hero's role then I would have to advance my skills. I practiced for awhile, trying to get a better handle on my own style, strengths, and weaknesses. While it was nowhere near as good as practicing with an actual opponent at least I learned a few things about myself. I didn't learn them from the actual practice against the tree, but more from reflection on my past battles.

My offense is probably my strongest area, while that is probably because I seem to have a strategic mind, thanks to my years as a thief. Thieves have to be strategic or else they'll get caught and I think that transferred over into my fighting style. Thieves notice everything around them so that they can use anything they can to their advantage. Or, at least the good ones do.

While my offense seems to be strong, my defense seems to be relatively weak. Specifically if I'm surprised. In several fights that I had, an enemy surprised me and that brought an unexpected hit. Some of those hits cost me a lot. Especially the time I got my leg broken. I winced. If my fairy wasn't there I would probably still be in that tree. Not a good thought. I need to be able to improvise mid-battle. If I can't do this then when I meet stronger opponents it will cost me my life. Flexibility in battle is very important.

"Can you stop wasting your energy? We should get a move on and I don't want you getting tired mid-day because you wasted it all now." I jumped around into a fight stance and threw my sword in the direction of the voice. My fairy gave a small yelp before fluttering to the side. "_Ugh!_ Can you stop almost killing me!?! First the slingshot and now this?!" I just lifted both shoulders into a shrug, while walking over to pick up my sword. I didn't even apologize to her.

After retrieving my sword I felt like getting away for a little while again.

"Fairy, I'm going to get a drink. Please don't follow me, but if you must then please don't talk." I didn't hear any response, but I didn't expect one. I reached the same river I was in front of before and took a small drink. After satisfying my thirst I stayed there, hoping I would be left alone. My fairy hadn't come with me and for that I was grateful.

I guess I spoke too soon.

My fairy was flying over to me now, slowly by the sound of things. She came to a stop next to me and I waited for her to find some sort of way of reprimanding me, but she said nothing. When she didn't say anything I just continued to stare at the river, as if I didn't notice she was here. The situation was growing tenser by the second and I soon felt as if I was losing air. Then, out of nowhere, my fairy broke the silence.

"Um, I...I just wanted to say that...um...I'm sorry for what I said last night. Well, that's not true. Um...how should I say this? I'm sorry for how I said what I said last night. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I'm supposed to be your partner and if I keep acting the way that I do then our partnership will never work. I'm sorry." That stunned me. I didn't think she would have cared about the way she talked to me. It made sense though. To be partners we have to have some sort of respect between us. We can't keep yelling and insulting each other.

"You don't have to be sorry. It takes two to argue. I have just as much fault if not more than you. I'm the one that almost killed Mido. You had every right to be angry." I really meant every word I said. It's true that I want power, but I don't want it like _that._ The more I thought about it the more disgusted I became with myself. It was a mistake to do that.

"As a fairy partner I should have handled it better though. I was _supposed_ to be able to handle it." I didn't have anything to say, so I stayed silent. "It's just," she continued, "Your emotions are totally screwed up. I don't know what to think of you. There's a part of you that is sinister and enjoys hurting people. A power-hungry side. But the other side of you is almost the complete opposite. It still wants power, but it wants it for the right reasons. It cares for people, more than it cares to admit. With everything you kill you feel a sort of compassion for the victim, even if it's just microscopic. That part of you is everything the hero is supposed to be and right now the two sides are at conflict."

"You got all that from my emotions?" It had only been a day and she already had me analyzed that much. It was amazing. Could all fairies do this, that quickly?

"Yeah, I'm sort of what most would call a prodigy fairy. I was extremely talented and quickly became the best fairy in my field." Well, I should have seen that coming. It only made sense that they gave the best fairy partner to the hero.

"That's cool." I heard my fairy give a sigh.

"Yeah, sure." I glanced over at my fairy, but by the looks of things, she was lost in thought. I looked up at the position of the sun. Mid-day, already. We should get a move on. I slowly picked myself up and began walking back to camp.

"Come on, Fairy, we need to go clean up camp so we can get moving again." She quickly flew and caught up to me on my right side.

"Please... call me Navi." I pretended something caught my eye on the left so she wouldn't see me smile.

"Sure thing, Navi."

* * *

The days passed by slowly. We had almost been traveling for a week and still no sign of the princess. I was beginning to wonder if this trail led anywhere at all. Navi and I didn't talk very much throughout the whole trip. There wasn't very much to say. Every morning I got up earlier than Navi to practice my sword moves. My movements were slowly becoming quicker and more powerful, but it still wasn't anywhere near where I wanted them to be.

While there was no sign of the princess, we did find a few settlements that people call ranches or farms. The biggest one was Lon Lon Ranch, but when we visited it no one seemed to be home, so we moved on. By the end of that day I could see a huge village in the distance. It was way bigger than Lon Lon Ranch and it didn't seem to match the usual description of a ranch. So, naturally, I assumed it was a village. Hopefully, I thought, the princess will be there. I was getting tired of all the walking and I needed to see some sort of sign of civilization.

Since it was night and we could see the village in the distance, we figured it would be easier to just finish the trek tomorrow and make camp now. I was getting really good at making a fire now, so I had it done in minutes. Once that was taken care of, I settled myself down somewhere and tried to go to sleep. I couldn't, so I took out the ocarina that Saria had given me and began to play it. Hopefully it would put me to sleep. It had been half an hour and I didn't have such luck, so Navi decided to start some conversation.

"Link, do you remember the time we stole that shield?" I stopped playing and slowly glanced at her.

"Yeah, so?"

"We never payed him back." I lifted an eyebrow.

"Does it matter now?" Navi chuckled.

"Well, I guess that sort of answers my question, but I'll ask it anyway. Are you the thief that plagues the Kokiri village?" I was taken aback by that question.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, everyone knows that there is a thief in the village, even if they never talk about it. Believe me, the Great Deku Tree and all the fairies were not oblivious to the problem. We just couldn't figure out who it was. When you first suggested stealing the shield I had my suspicions, even if you made it seem like it was for the sake of the Great Deku Tree. When you were completing the theft, you made it seem like it was a natural everyday sort of thing. Now, when I told you we never payed him back, even though you said we would, you shrugged it off as if it was no big deal. This led me to the conclusion that you are, in fact, the thief in the Kokiri village."

"Nice conclusion. Since you put so much thought into it, I might as well tell you that your theory is correct." I paused and waited for her to continue. "So, what now? Are you going to punish me in some way?" Navi paused to think about it.

"There really isn't much I can do. The only thing I can really do is reprimand you and tell you not to do it again. That wasn't the reason I wanted to know though. I was always kind of intrigued by the thief. No one in the history of the Kokiri village had ever stolen anything. I kind of wanted to know why a Kokiri would turn himself into a thief, if you'll tell me." I slowly put my ocarina back into my pouch.

"I've wondered that myself, but thinking back to the first time I ever stole something I think I know why. Do you remember the former leader of the Kokiri village before Mido?"

"Yeah. I don't remember how he died though. No one really talked about it."

"I didn't even remember him until my birthday during the fight with Gohma. I guess I repressed those memories, even though my subconscious knew all along. Anyway, you could probably say he is the reason I became a thief. The village leader, who's name was Jeb, was my caretaker back then. The first Kokiri to really take an interest in me, even before Saria. He was like an older brother. He taught me many things, like how to walk. Basically, to take care of myself. "

I paused. It was difficult to relive the recently resurfaced memories.

"One thing he always told me never to do was go into the Lost Woods, well, specifically a certain place in the woods. I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going. I, of course, disobeyed him. I went into that area frequently, mostly just to prove to myself I could go in there and not get hurt. One day I wasn't so lucky. It was a normal day. I was in the forbidden area and just as I was about to leave, I heard a low growl. I turned around and saw a Wolfos. Its growl was menacing and I was scared, just like any normal seven year old would be. It charged me and I fainted in fear. When I woke up the first thing I noticed was the Wolfos lying on the ground dead. I then quickly noticed Jeb sitting down next to the body. Seeing my brother, I yelled out to him. I was too excited I didn't see the blood dripping from his front and on to the floor. When he turned around I saw he was disfigured. It was hard to recognize him or believe he was even still alive. I cried harder than I ever had that night. I felt so ashamed and stupid. Thinking back on it, I feel so stupid for disobeying him. My disobedience cost him his life and I was sure I wasn't the only Kokiri who blamed me for his death. Mido was training under him at the time and although he did make fun of me, it was never as bad as when he died. Mido blamed me for his death and he had every right to. Saria was the only one who took pity on me. It was then that she began to take care of me. I never allowed myself to get too close to her though. I didn't want to feel the pain of losing someone again. Soon after that, I made my first theft. It exhilarated me and made me feel more alive than I ever had since he died. I couldn't get enough of it. I guess my thievery is just a way to cope with his death. Nothing more, nothing less."

Once I was finished it was hard to hold back the tears. I did though. I don't know how, but not a single tear fell from my eyes. Navi was obviously thinking about what to say. I don't think she expected that to be the reason I turned into a thief.

"Link, Jeb's death...it wasn't your fault. And even if it was, you shouldn't mope about it. That wouldn't be what he would want." I sighed.

"You're wrong. It was my fault. If I hadn't disobeyed him, he would still be here." I paused and looked at Navi. "You were right about one thing though. I shouldn't mope about it. What's done is done and there is no undoing it. It isn't like I can travel back in time to make everything right. Jeb wouldn't want me to dwell in the past. He would want me to learn from the experience and grow stronger, for his sake." Navi nodded.

"Well, since you gave me some insight into your own life I might as well return the favor and tell you about my own."

"You don't have to."

"Nah, I want to. As I told you before, I'm a prodigy fairy. I don't really know what to say, but I'll try to talk for a little while. The highest occupation a fairy can go for is to be someone's partner. It's an honor to be chosen to learn that occupation. Well, that's what I used to think about it, at least. Sometimes, I think it is a curse. You see, a fairy as skilled as I am doesn't happen. At all. To most fairies, I'm a freak. I never made a single friend because of it. When I began to make the progress I did, I thought I would be looked up to. I thought people would like me. Turns out, I make other fairies feel inferior and that doesn't bode well with them. You don't know how relieved I was when I was chosen to be the partner of the one and only hero. I finally thought that this was the time that I would be able to use my skills without feeling...like a freak. The feeling didn't go away though. I'm not sure it ever will."

"Navi, there is no shame in being the best. You should be proud. How often does anyone get to be as skilled as you? Never. Those fairies, if they can't appreciate it, don't deserve to be your friend." I was surprised I said that. I wasn't one to get close to people. Especially since it had only barely been a week since I met her. There was something about her that I just couldn't place. I felt I could open up to her fearlessly. I had never told anyone how I felt about that night I got Jeb killed, not even Saria, even though she asked to talk about it so many times.

I needed to stop this. I was getting too close. It wouldn't be good if I got too close. I might lose track of my goal. The reason I agreed to this. I need power and if she was going to be a distraction then I should further myself away from her.

"Thank you, Link." I turned away from her and laid down on my side.

"No problem, Fairy."

* * *

Camp was cleaned up and everything looked ready to go. I smiled. Today I would finally get to see the princess! I reached in my pouch and touched the Kokiri Emerald. Finally, I could get started on more adventures.

My fairy and I were now walking along the road and the village was looming ahead of us. As I got closer, I realized I had seen this place before. This was the place I had dreamed about. In my dream it had been rainy, dark, and depressing, but now it looked sunny, cheerful, and happy. From the looks of things there were not going to be any strangers on white horses almost ramming me, which I was grateful for.

Walking on the draw bridge I felt ecstatic and I wondered what I would find in the actual village.

* * *

******Author's Note: ****This is my first fan-fiction story. Any constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. This chapter was not Beta'd.**


	7. Castle Town

**Legend Of a Thief: Ocarina of Time**

**Chapter 7**

* * *

This was definitely not like any village I had ever been to. Not like that was many to begin with, but whatever. There was people everywhere. You actually had to watch where you were going or else you would run into someone easily.

When we had entered there was a scruffy looking guard that looked like he hated his life, who greeted me into town. As soon as I got that fake cheerful greeting I knew there was something wrong with this place. I continued to walk though and, since I had no idea where anything was, I decided that it would probably be easier to continue to walk straight.

After about a half-hour of walking we came to a clearing that seemed to hold the most people. Looking up I found a sign that read "Hyrule Castle Town Market". The sign confused me because I had never even heard of the word town. What's a town? I might have thought on it a bit more, but I couldn't concentrate due to the weird faces everyone was giving me.

"What's their problems?" I asked rhetorically. My fairy obviously didn't understand that.

"Do you see any other 12 year old boys walking around with weapons on their back and a fairy?" I shrugged.

"No one asked you." I continued to clear my way through the crowd, not really knowing where to go at all. Soon, I reached a fountain that was close to 5 meters tall and glorious looking. It had three triangles arranged in a way that they would create one unified triangle. Surrounding them was a wingspan that was maybe twice my own height. This must represent the Triforce, I assumed. There were seats right next to the fountain, probably so that people could rest. I decided to sit down and think of my next move.

"Do you know where a princess would live?" I asked my fairy. Instead of responding, she continued looking blankly into open space. "Well?"

"Oh, were you talking to me this time? I just figured that since no one ever talks to me that you were talking to someone else." Hearing her response, I sighed.

"Jeez, you never let go of a grudge, do you?" She just laughed. While rolling my eyes, I continued with, "Anyway, back to important things. Do you know where a princess might live?" She looked up in thought.

"Uh, I might have an idea, but it could easily be wrong."

"Well, I'm eager to hear it."

Clearing her throat, she said, "I think the princess is in the castle." I looked forward at the large building looming before us.

"You mean that castle?"

"Yeah."

Uncertainty evident in my voice, I said, "Are you sure? Maybe we should ask the locals."

"Ugh! Fine then, don't believe me. Last time I'll ever give you my opinion," she said, obvioulsy offended. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever."

A large man, wearing a red shirt with blue overalls, soon passed before us and I stopped him. "Excuse me, sir?" He stopped, looked down, and grunted as he saw me.

"What do you want?"

"Well, I wanted to know if you knew where the princess lives." He chuckled lightly.

"Who doesn't?" I paused. This question is probably making me look a bit stupid. Not wanting my own reputation to be tarnished I decided to blame it on someone else.

"This fairy. I told her where it was, but she didn't want to believe me, so I decided that a second opinion would probably help convince her." My fairy was about to scream a cry of protest, but she was just a little too slow.

"Heh, wow. She must be borderline retarded. Well, if I must, the princess lives in that castle over yonder." I smiled.

"Thanks."

"No problem." As the man walked away I knew I was going to get chewed out for this one.

"You did _not_ just blame that on me, did you?!" I laughed.

"Don't overreact. We probably won't see that man ever again anyway." She gritted her teeth.

"While that is probably true, that doesn't mean I want myself to be viewed as an idiot everywhere I go! Next time, you take the blame!" I shrugged.

"Fine, whatever makes you happy." I got up from the bench I was on and looked towards the castle, while smirking. My next mission awaits me in that castle. The excitement was building up and I knew I couldn't wait.

Making my way through the crowd was getting easier. There seemed to be less people near the castle, which I personally thought was strange. I figured that people would be all over the princess all the time. Instead, people seemed to avoid her.

The closer we got to the castle the less urban it seemed. Soon I felt alone on the path to the castle. The ground around me seemed to rise, although the path I was on remained at the same place, creating a wall that kept me on this path no matter what. The path veered to the right and I came to a gate guarded by a soldier.

"Halt! What is your business here at the castle?" I stopped as soon as I realized he was talking to me.

"Um, I'm here to see the Princess?" He let a chuckle slip out from his lips.

"Oh, well I guess that changes _everything._ I bet you heard about her in town and just decided you had to meet her, didn't you?" I shrugged.

"Sure, I guess you could say that." I didn't want to reveal the real reason I was going, so I just decided to go along with what he said.

"Well...too bad! Get away from here you vermin! The princess would never grant an audience to the likes of you! Scram!" This really ticked me off.

"_Don't-talk-to-me-like-that_."

Barely containing his own laughter he said, "What are _you_ going to do?! You're just a little kid!" Just as my hand was about to come up to my sword, my fairy interrupted.

"Link, let's just go." I recognized the edge in her voice and heeded her words. This guy wasn't worth it anyway. I nodded and turned my back on him. As soon as we were out of earshot of that guard we began to discuss our predicament.

"Well, I can see why no one is ever around here. It's probably not worth going to see the princess if you have to pass through that son of a-"

"_Okaaay_, let's not go there," my fairy quickly interjected. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, I won't." I took a small glance back at the castle and mentally took in every detail I could about it. Mind back on track, I said, "Of course, this just opens up a whole new set of problems to us. We definitely can't get in there directly, which only leaves a break in." My fairy sighed.

"This coming from the thief, of course." I frowned, placing an insulted look on my face.

"Well, do you have any better ideas?" She didn't think very long before she responded.

"Of course not." I smirked, expecting that answer.

"Good fairy." She snorted.

"Yeah, okay, I'll just pretend I never heard that. Anyway, so what's our plan of attack?" I thought about it for a second.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?! You're supposed to be good at this!" I shrugged.

"Even at the Kokiri village I took at least a few days to plan the robbery, so that there wouldn't be any mistakes. This is a castle. I'm going to have to prepare for a little while longer. Just be patient."

"What are we supposed to do in the meantime?!" my fairy said incredulously.

"First of all, we have to find a place to spend the night. It probably isn't a good idea to spend the night on the street. We'll discuss our next move once that's taken care of." She sighed.

"Let's head into town then." It didn't take long to get back, but it was now late afternoon and finding a place to stay was probably going to take awhile. We had checked around the market and we couldn't find anything. It was becoming evening and we were now in the area people called the back alleys. This wasn't the most the attractive area, but it wasn't so bad. There was litter scattered about on the ground and plenty of trash bins all over.

We soon reached a building that looked somewhat public and we decided to enter. This building had a relatively big lobby with a desk against the front wall. Several people were standing around the room, obviously waiting for something. Stationed at the desk was a young, petite woman with brown hair. She had on a black skirt and a white shirt, which looked strangely uniformal. She looked bored, but her eyes brightened up when she saw me. I decided to visit her first, since she was the one behind a desk. Once I reached her I was about to say something, but she interrupted me.

"Are you that guy from the forest everyone has been talking about?" I was a little confused, to say the least.

"Yeah?" She laughed triumphantly.

"Yes!"

"What are you so happy about?" my fairy questioned. The woman could hardly contain her joy as she told us about it.

"I made a bet earlier on whether or not I would even get the chance to see you today, since I sit here all day. Yes! 50 rupees are now mine!" I was still confused.

"Am I really that well known already?"

"Are you kidding?! It isn't everyday that a boy with a sword on his back and a fairy shows up in this town. I bet everyone knows about you by now." I nodded understandingly. Was a twelve year old wearing a sword and being followed by a fairy really so strange?

"So, thank you for checking out the Back Alley Hotel, especially in such daunting circumstances. Would you like a room?" Daunting circumstances? What was she talking about? While I did want to know about these "daunting circumstances", I figured it wasn't relevant to what my mission at the moment was. Focusing on the task at hand, I asked, "What's a hotel?" She giggled.

"Yeah, okay. So, seriously, do you want a room or not?" I blinked, a blank expression planted on my face.

"I'm not kidding. I don't know what a hotel is." She giggled a little more.

"Are you serious! Wow, you must have lived in some sort of deprived neighborhood if you don't even know what a hotel is, but I guess I should have expected that considering how you are dressed." I blushed. What was wrong with the way I dressed?

"Well, um, can you tell me what a hotel is?" She nodded while stifling a laugh.

"Yeah, a hotel is a place where you can go for a room to stay in. You have to pay for the room by day though. If you don't have enough rupees you obviously can't stay. Get it?"

"Makes sense to me." She smiled.

"So, you came for a room, right?" I nodded. "Okay then, let's see. I have a spare room right now and it is room 8. It's on the second floor. That will be 75 rupees." I shrunk back. I didn't have that much. I broke off eye contact with her and began to think. I couldn't pay for this room, but I probably wouldn't find another hotel today. I looked around the room for something that might help me out when my eyes stumbled upon a map of the town. A plan forming in my head, I looked at the woman's waist. The keys to the available rooms were stationed on a belt wrapped around her waist. I smirked. Perfect.

"Um, miss, I actually don't have that much money." She frowned.

"Aw, I'm sorry to hear that, but if you can't pay then I can't give you a room. Sorry." I gave her an innocent smile.

"It's okay. If you don't mind though, can you point me in the direction of a hotel cheaper then this one? I really do need a place to stay." She gave me a warm smile.

"Of course. Follow me to the map." She left the desk and walked toward the map with me in tow. When I was sure I could time it right, I tripped myself and fell forward onto her waist. While we were in purposeful disarray, I clipped the key I needed off of her belt and slipped it into my pouch. Once we composed ourselves again I apologized.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm a bit of a klutz." She chuckled.

"It's perfectly alright. Come here, I'll show you the cheaper hotels." I nodded and paid close attention to what she said. She pointed out many hotels in the area and I soon had a good grasp of how to maneuver the town a bit better. Thanking her, I left and when she wasn't looking, slipped up into the second floor.

"What are you doing up here, Link?" my fairy said. When she said that I grinned and lifted the key up with my hand, jiggling it. "Link! When did you get that?!"

"Do you really think I'm clumsy enough to fall onto her like that? Come on. You should know me better than that!" She sighed.

"I honestly thought you just wanted to touch her. You kept staring at her and I felt a certain emotion rise within you." I flinched.

"Hey! She was attractive, okay?" I gave a small snicker. "The girls in the Kokiri Village don't compare to the girls here. Besides, I'm nothing if not professional. I wouldn't let anything like a girl get in the way of what I want." My fairy scoffed.

"I don't doubt that, but did you really have to steal that key? There were cheaper hotels, you know!" I shrugged.

"I don't want to be out there any longer than I have to. Besides, the quicker we get settled, the quicker I can get to work on my plan for invading the castle, in order to complete the Deku Tree's orders." My fairy just sighed and I smiled at the realization that I had just won.

"Why do you always have to play that card?" I smirked while looking for room 8.

"Because it is your weakness." I heard her sneer, but I didn't respond because I had found it. I stuck the key into the hole and turned. I heard the click of the door unlocking and I slowly opened it. The room was small, with only one bed and a table, but it did have a small balcony type thing. The sheets on the bed were clean and the walls were dull, but it was overall a good room. I walked over to the bed and plopped myself down.

Letting go a sigh of relief, I said, "Wow, it feels so good to be in a bed after about a week of sleeping in the wilderness." My fairy maneuvered her way over to me and glared at me impatiently.

"Well?" I lifted my head to look at her.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to get started on that plan already?" I sighed deeply.

"You won't even give me the chance to rest?" She nodded.

"Pretty much." I pulled myself up and walked over to the table.

"Well, if that's how it's going to be then I'll need paper." She looked at me stupidly.

"Why in the world would you need paper?"

Rolling my eyes, I said, "So I can draw the castle and prepare a way in. It is much easier if I have a visual."

"Well, where are we supposed to get any at this time of night?" I shrugged while walking towards the bed again.

"I don't know, but, since we don't have any, I guess I can't plan till tomorrow." She groaned.

"You knew we wouldn't be able to plan until tomorrow, didn't you?"

Chuckling, I said, "Caught." Just before she could whine and groan though, I continued with, "but don't worry. I'll wake up early tomorrow and we'll immediately get what we need, so I can plan my break in. Just let me rest today." I heard her moan, but she gave me her consent anyway. Content with the way things went today, I grinned in anticipation for the next day.

I would finally be able to flex my thieving skills tomorrow. It should be fun to plan a way to break into the castle undetected. I remembered a few shops the lady behind the desk had pointed out and I made a mental note to visit them tomorrow. While I mentally planned out my day I kept feeling a sort of excitement I'd never felt before.

I had always wanted to see the world. To not be confined within the forest. I had finally accomplished my goal and the full meaning of that was beginning to sink in. Seeing full grown people for the first time was intriguing. I had seen drawings of them and heard about how their height compared to that of a Kokiri, but it was still cool to see them up close. Exploring this new world had put me in the best mood I had been in in years.

I felt like I couldn't sleep, but sure enough I soon found myself in a deep slumber.

* * *

I awoke to screaming. The scream was so loud and piercing that my eyes jolted open and I was immediately awake. I jumped off the bed and ran for the balcony. Realizing I was still in my clothes and I still had my weapons on from last night, I made no effort to prepare.

Once I reached the end of the balcony I looked down to measure how far I was from the ground. It was close enough, I decided. I pulled myself over and jumped off, rolling forward as I hit the ground.

By now my fairy was up and catching up to me, saying, "_Link?!_ What the heck are you doing?!" I didn't answer her though. I kept on running in the direction of the scream. I maneuvered the alleys perfectly until I found what I was looking for.

Laying against the wall of a building was a women that was soaked in blood. She literally looked like she had something ripped out of her. Seeing all the blood unnerved me, but only a little. I had seen things like this before, after all.

I heard a sound coming from the end of the alley way and once I looked, I saw a cloaked man turning a corner. _Oh no, you don't_, I thought to myself. I began to run to him while pulling out my sword. I rounded the corner quickly and looked to see where he went.

Much to my dismay, he was nowhere in sight. I cursed and put away my sword. How could he move so quick?! My fairy was finally totally caught up and she stared down the alley as I was.

"Who could have done this?" I shook my head.

"I have no idea, but we should tell someone about this. We have to get the street cleaned up." She nodded and we began to walk towards the body again. By the time we were there, we weren't alone. There were many people around the corpse now. They were all talking to each other and by the looks of things, they knew a lot more about what happened than I did. Seeing that gathering as much information as I could would probably benefit me, I listened in.

"This is the second murder this week."

"Someone has to stop this guy!"

"Yeah!"

"Who in the world could be doing this?"

"I don't know, but the Hylian Guards should be doing their job, instead of slacking off." They would have continued, but now the guards were here. They were asking us to clear away from the body and just go home. I complied since there was no real reason not to. While walking back to the hotel I could hear them taking the bloody corpse away.

I entered the hotel through the lobby, carefully so I wouldn't attract the lady-who-worked-there's attention. It seemed it was still a bit too early for her to be at work and so I sneaked back into my room. Once inside, I threw myself onto the bed and tried to comprehend what just happened.

Why would someone just kill a woman like that? What reason could he possibly have that would justify that? There were several other murders also. They mentioned that it had been the second this week. Just how many had this person killed before? Was it for the same reason he had killed this woman? These questions were all hovering around in my head, yet I couldn't find a single answer. I wondered for a brief second if what happened right now had anything to do with the "daunting circumstances" the lady-who-worked-here had mentioned.

Shoving all those thoughts aside I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't let what happened today distract me from my main goal. I needed power and in order to do that I needed to see the princess. That was my main priority, not this.

Once my head was on straight, I looked out the window and saw the sun rising up from the horizon. I promised my fairy I would get started on the planning and that is what I should start on now. I got up from the bed and began to walk for the door. I looked back at my fairy and noticed that she was perched on the table, staring out into open space.

"You coming?" This brought her out of her trance.

"Yeah, um, where are we going?" I let out a light chuckle.

"Remember? I need paper and I decided that since most shops would be opening around this time we could go get some." She groaned, which in turn, made me laugh. "Not much of a morning person, are you?" She took in a deep breath.

"No, I'm not. It's a curse." I smiled and motioned for her to come. Afterward, I left the room and made my way out of the hotel.

The market was bustling with people, even if it was early in the morning. Trying to find a market that sold paper was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I groaned in frustration and looked up at the sky. It was about nine now. Finally, because my fairy insisted, I asked for directions. The man I asked looked at me weirdly, but answered my question anyway. Supposedly, if I was to find paper I was supposed to find it in a wood store. Apparently, paper was made from trees and even though it looks nothing like wood, it is sold in the same store anyway.

I learn something new everyday.

Walking into the nearest wood store I immediately spotted what I was looking for. I picked up just enough to get what I needed done and then I figured I would look for something to write with. If I didn't have anything like that then there was no point in even buying the paper. They were found quickly and I brought them up to the pay place. Even though I was itching to steal them I figured I should pay for them, since I _could_ pay for them. Probably shouldn't anger my fairy unnecessarily. At least they were cheap.

Walking out of the shop, I immediately noticed there were more people than when I walked in. It was a little claustrophobic, but I still liked it better than the forest. I was making my way back to the hotel when I passed a girl around my age, with fiery red hair. I glanced at her and she stared back. We eyed each other as I walked by, almost as if we were sizing each other up. Then, she abruptly blushed and broke off eye contact, leaving me to wonder what her problem was as I continued to walk to the hotel.

I just managed to enter my room without being noticed, but at least I did it. Dangerous part over with, I sat myself down in front of the table and smiled. It was time to start planning my ultimate challenge.

* * *

**Author's Note: This is my first fan fiction story. Constructive critism is welcomed and appreciated. This chapter was not Beta'd**

**Well, this was a fast update. Just so all my readers know, I hardly ever update this fast. This week's chapter was kind of a freak of nature for me. So, don't expect updates to ever happen this quick.**

**On another note, I don't think I will update for a while after this one. Don't worry, the story is far from dead. I just need a little extra time while planning the next one. It will be a different chapter than I've ever done and I want enough time to get it right, so please don't get mad if I don't update for a while. I repeat, the story is FAR from dead.**


	8. Boy meets girl

Chapter 8

It was early day and, as far as I could tell, the sun was just barely coming up. The castle that took up my field of vision loomed in front of me unexpectedly. It didn't know that it would be receiving an unforeseen visitor today. The thought made me smile. The anticipation of doing something like this before it happened was addicting. Maybe it was the reason I enjoyed it so much. You just forget all of your problems.

I heard my fairy groan and I knew that meant, "Get on with it!" Unlike me, she didn't appreciate how exciting something like this could be. She preferred to do everything the "morally upright" way. To me, that was the boring way.

I knew it wasn't in my best interest to argue with her and made my way to the vines we had found two weeks ago. Thinking back to the first time I had past through this area, I think I should have noticed them then, but for some odd reason I didn't. I put my hand on the vines, making sure they were still sturdy. I had done a lot of climbing on them the past few weeks and I wanted to make sure I hadn't loosened them. They seemed sturdy enough, so I began my climb. Unfortunately, I hadn't even made it halfway when I was interrupted by a voice I had begun to know all too well.

"Hey, Fairy boy, what are you doing?" I turned around and found the very girl I didn't want to see at the moment. Malon. It wasn't that I didn't like her or anything, it's just that, I had no time to deal with her at the moment. I let go of the vines and allowed myself to fall. I hit the ground hard, but there was no sound to be heard when I touched down. Naturally, it took me forever to master that skill, but I knew it would be good to learn if you had the profession of a thief. Plus, Malon seemed to enjoy it as well.

She giggled as she saw me in my finished landing position, which even I had to admit, looked comical, but it was the only way I could pull off the trick. My legs were spread farther than they usually would be and my right hand was the ground, basically giving me a third leg. Originally, it was my left hand, but due to recent circumstances I figured it would be better to have my left hand free as much as possible. Just in case there's trouble.

"I don't think that matters. I can go where I want. You have to answer to your dad. I think the question is, what are _you _doing here?" She smirked at how I dodged the question, but answered it anyway.

"My dad is delivering milk over at the castle, but that was yesterday! I just came by to see if I could get him, but it looks like you're already going in. You are, aren't you?" I wasn't at all surprised she came to that conclusion, especially considering how we met.

Knowing that lying would get me nowhere, I decided to tell the truth. "I have to go see Princess Zelda. So, yeah I'm going in." I paused a second and raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean you want me to look for him?"

She gave a shy little smile before saying, "Yeah, if that isn't too much trouble."

I thought about if for a second before I declared, "Sure. I won't be specifically look for him, but if I happen to cross his path I'll tell him to get to you. I can't really afford to go beyond the path I already have planned out. Sorry."

"That's fine. As long as you try, I understand." I nodded, looked back at my fairy, and then the vines.

"I should probably get back to what I was doing. If I don't follow the plan then this chance will have been wasted. Talk to you later." She returned my nod.

"See ya." I turned my back on her and went for the vines again. This time while I was climbing I couldn't help but think of Malon. I couldn't help but admire the way she met me.

**Flashback**

The door creaked open slowly and the lady-who-worked-at-the-hotel peaked into the room. Everything grew silent as she stared into the room, but I could tell by her breathing that she was scared or, at least, nervous. I could hear her slowly entering the room and inspecting it.

This situation wasn't working to my advantage at all. I hadn't anticipated her having an extra key or even checking so soon for all the keys to be accounted for. I was cocky and I didn't think properly. All signs pointed to me being an idiot. Dang it.

The only reason I haven't been caught was due to the lucky ability of my ears. While I was sneaking back to my room, after using the bathroom, I happened to hear her freaking out downstairs. After assessing the situation, I rushed upstairs and got everything ready to the point of making it look like nothing had happened. I was a little late though, when it came to getting out and she opened the door in the middle of my escape. Having to abort, I made the quick decision to hide under the bed, which is where I am now.

Judging by her footsteps, she was now in the middle of the room. Unfortunately that blocked a clean shot to the balcony, which was my last hope for escape. I cursed mentally, for I knew I couldn't stay down here forever.

But, I thought, she can't stay up here forever either. Sooner or later she'll have to leave and that is when I'll take my own leave. I relaxed a little more, now that I had a relatively good plan. I could hear her getting closer to the bed and I began to get a little more nervous. She was now next to it and I could feel beads of sweat coming down my face. There was no way she would know to check down here, I reassured myself. I was staring right at her leg, waiting for any indication of what her next move would be.

Once I saw the slight bending movement in her leg, I made my own move. I had to be quick, but I was sure I could do it. I rolled out from under the bed as silently as I could and watched her bend over to check under the bed.

As soon as she was too low to see me I jumped up onto the bed and used the bed's springs to launch myself into a front flip over her. I landed perfectly and wasted no time in running for the balcony. Once I reached it, I looked over my shoulders while jumping. She had been so frightened that she had been unable to move. Turning around to look where I'm falling, I smirked. I guess fear can be useful. Just as long as you are the who one puts the fear into others.

I landed in a roll and continued to run. There was still a chance that she could awake from her trance and look down from the balcony. I needed to get out of this area. I turned a few corners and finally stopped running. A few people stared at me as I passed by and I think a few people saw me jump from the balcony, but, besides that, I think I made a clean getaway.

My fairy, who had been hiding on the ceiling of the hotel room, was finally catching up to me and I could here her shouting at me.

"Link! That was WAY too close! We are NOT doing that again!" I waited until she was closer to respond.

"I agree on the situation being way too close, but I still think we should keep doing what we're doing."

"Why in the world would you think that?! We almost got caught! Do you see the guards around here?! They aren't placed everywhere just for show!" I looked up into the sky and took in a deep breath. I knew my fairy had a point. This place was different and new to me. The Kokiri Village didn't have guards or anything like that. This place did. If I don't adapt my thinking to my new environment then there would be no way for me to continue. I would face the consequences of my actions and that didn't sound very appealing. These people seemed to have certain precautions that would defend from a thief and I needed to find a way passed them.

A plan already formulating in my head, I responded, "Well then, where do you propose we sleep? I don't think sleeping on the streets is a good idea, judging by what happened to that girl that we saw last night."

My fairy took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm down, before arguing, "Do you have a better idea? Besides anything that involves breaking laws?"

"Do you?" Knowing how I usually argued, she probably expected a question like this. That didn't mean she could figure out a way past it though.

"Fine. I'll hear what you have to say. Once you finish, I'll approve or disapprove." I grinned. She's catching on.

"Thanks." Clearing my throat, I went on, "What I'm saying is that we should take this experience as more of a learning experience. I guess you could say, kind of experimental."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"That means that the next time we steal a hotel room we'll be more prepared. I won't make the same mistakes I did before. Back there I made one huge mistake. I hadn't anticipated there being an extra key or her checking all the keys so soon. Next time, I will. You can count on that."

"Okay, I see what you're saying, but how are you going to nullify the problem?"

"Well, we'll just have to switch hotels every other day. The point of the new theft we're going to do is to get in and out before they even notice anything happened. We're going to go into a hotel and get a room."

"I'm assuming your doing that by stealing a key, right?" I thought about it for a second.

"Maybe. It depends on what kind of lock they have."

"What kind of lock? You can pick locks?" I shrugged.

"Yeah, only if needed though. I don't really enjoy it. Kind of one of those things that I try to find a way around."

"Hmm...okay. Continue."

"So, if we don't even steal a key we could probably even stay there until they get someone that needs the room and actually pays." I paused for emphasis. "If we do it like that then there's no way we'll be caught like that." I looked up at the falling sun. "I need an answer now, just so you know." She followed my eyes to the sinking orb of light.

"Just so _you _know, I'm not taking this lightly. If there is even the slightest mishap, we are never doing this again!" I simpered.

"Just so _you_ know, I don't make the same mistakes twice." She scoffed, making a motion that obviously showed disapproval.

"So, which hotel do you have in mind?" I looked toward the east.

"The east part of town seems to be...I don't really know how to put it. More profitable I guess."

"Is that the area you want to try?" I shrugged.

"On the map in the last hotel it showed more expensive hotels on that part of town. I'm curious to see how those are like. So, yeah, I want to go there." Yesterday we had only explored the more western areas of town. We hadn't really had time to check the east part of town. My fairy nodded and we began to walk.

The east part of town was making the west look like crap. Everything was gradually getting more clean and beautiful. It was strange, because back at the Kokiri village everything was the same no matter where you went. No side of it was better then the other. There were also more guards around here than the other, as if this side was worth more than the other. The people I passed were also dressed cleaner and they held their heads higher. What really irked me though, was how they looked at me. They looked at me as if I was inferior to them. As if I didn't even belong in their presence.

I was trying my best to control my anger, but their looks didn't help. Every new face I met carried the same look. I had to keep my head down now, even if I felt that made me look weak. It was better than looking at their faces.

The street was getting a little more busy and I now had to watch where I was going. Based on the map, I knew we were in this area's market. Everything was shinier and fancier, just how I'd come to expect. The hotel I was looking for was further down this street and I was beginning to see it in the distance.

Although we were close, I was beginning to feel nervous. For some reason I couldn't understand, I was doubting my own ability. I could see the entrance clearly now, but I wanted to practice before I entered. I decided to start out with a simple trick and purposefully bumped into a civilian, stealing their wallet.

"Excuse me." He just glared at me and then continued on his way. I didn't care that he looked at me in that way this time, because this time, I stole something from him. I was laughing inwardly while I turned around to head back to the hotel. As soon as I turned around though, I heard a voice.

"You know, you shouldn't steal things." I looked to the side quickly and, to my surprise, it was just a girl around my age. Come to think of it, I was pretty sure I had seen her before. It was just a girl, so I didn't feel to much need to lie to her about this. If she was going to report me on this, she probably would have done that immediately instead of contacting me.

"What's it to you? It's not like I stole from you." She just smiled.

"It's nothing really, just some friendly advice." I looked her in the eyes, trying to discern her sincerity. As I looked, I couldn't help but notice how different they were. She didn't look at me with a haughty attitude like all the others. The only thing I could discern was how compassionate they were. They were no where near like the others. I was about to say something to her, but my fairy interrupted me.

"What's she talking about, Link?" I cringed. This theft was supposed to remain hidden from her and now, thanks to this girl, my fairy had found out. Great.

"Umm...I...pick-pocketed that man that we passed not too long ago." As I said this I couldn't help but wonder how this girl could have seen me do it. Even my fairy, who can read my emotions, wasn't aware of it. I looked her over. This girl had sharp eyes. Eyes that only another fellow thief had. At least, that was my theory.

"What in the world did you do that for, Link?! That kind of behavior is not acceptable!" I rolled my eyes.

"I was just practicing, alright? It won't happen again." I heard her sigh and I knew this conversation wasn't over. Before she could respond, though, the girl spoke to me, much to my relief.

"So, what are you doing in this part of town? You don't look like a resident." I looked down at my clothes, to the girl, then to the rest of the people around me. My green tunic definitely stood out. A lot.

"Well, you're right. I'm not from around here." I needed to be careful about how I answered the question. If she knew I was planning on stealing a hotel room then she could turn me in. The best move in this situation was to tell only half the truth. "Since I'm not from around here, I need a place to stay. I was going to check out that hotel." I motioned towards it. "That's basically it." She looked me up and down and just laughed.

"You're going to a hotel from around here, dressed like that?! I'll be surprised if they even let you in the doors! You'll have better luck in the west part of town!" I blushed. This was the second time my clothes got insulted by a girl. What's worse, now that I thought about it, she was a pretty cute girl.

"If you don't mind telling me, what's wrong with my clothes?!" She calmed herself down to the point of not laughing anymore.

"Well, first off, there very dirty and peasant-like. Second of all, how come it looks like you're wearing a dress?" I cut her off quickly.

"It's NOT a dress! It's a tunic!" She rolled her eyes.

"Oh please. I could make my dress look like that if it was green, shorter, and had a belt wrapped around it's mid-section." I gritted my teeth. Cute girl or not, she was starting to piss me off. Obviously seeing this, she smirked and changed the subject. "So, since that hotel idea is a bust, what are you going to do now?"

Trying to calm myself down, I responded, "Well, I'm sure I can make it work. Don't worry about it." She tilted her head to the side.

"Don't even think about trying to break into and hide in one of their rooms. It'll fail, trust me." My eyes widened in surprise. How in the world could she have known that was what I was planning? As if she was reading my thoughts she continued, "I know this because all thieves think the same. They aren't that hard to figure out."

"Well, what else can I do? It's not like staying on the streets is a good idea. Especially with those murders going on."

With no hesitancy, she said, "You could stay with me and my family." I was once again taken aback by what she said. She responded so quickly it was as if she already had that response planned out. I didn't even know her name! How could I even contemplate staying with someone I didn't even know? How could I even trust her? I was about to respond, but I was interrupted.

"Sure, if it's not too much trouble and your family would agree." I looked up at my fairy in amazement. What's up with that! We don't even know these people!

"Navi, what are you doing?" She looked down at me, came really close, and whispered.

"If we have the chance to stay somewhere without breaking the law, I'm taking it. We may not know these people, but if the daughter is so helpful, she must have got it from somewhere. Her parents might be just as nice. Don't be so distrustful. There are good people, Link." I grunted. I'm sure there probably were good people, but what made her so sure that these were some of them? Although, I disagreed with her, I knew I had no real way to argue my way out of this one, so I reluctantly nodded my head.

The girl smiled widely and said, "That's great! It's been awhile since I've hung out with another kid my age! This will be fun!" She stuck her hand out at me. "Now I'll properly introduce myself. I'm Malon. And you are?" I just looked at the hand. What in the world is that supposed to do? "Wow, you really aren't from around here, are you? When someone sticks their hand out you're supposed to shake it. Stick your hand out and I'll show you."

Slowly I obeyed her and stuck my hand out. Once it was out, she grabbed it firmly and shook. It wasn't a hard shake like I thought it was going to be. It was more of a friendly shake. Although it wasn't what I thought it was going to be like it was still very weird. Not as weird as a hug, but still weird.

Now that we were shaking hands, Malon now said, "Isn't this neat? Now, tell me your name."

"Link."

"Good to meet you, Link." We stopped shaking hands and she now crossed her arms. "See, introductions aren't that difficult, Link." I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever." She giggled.

"I like you. You're pretty funny." I was tempted to roll my eyes again, but I felt that might just be adding wood to the fire.

"So, Where do you live? I'd kind of like to get there now, if that's where we're going to be staying. You know, since it's dark already." She looked down the street.

"Nice timing. My dad is coming down the street now. I'll have to ask his permission to let you stay with us, but he'll most likely say yes. He can't say no to me. Once I have permission, he'll take us to our relative's house."

"What do you mean by 'relative's house'? It isn't yours?" She shook her head.

"Nah, my dad and I live outside of Castle Town, out in a place called Lon Lon Ranch. We have family over here though, so when we make deliveries we stay at their house instead of a hotel. It's cheaper that way and we also get to bond with our family." I nodded. So they were the family that owned Lon Lon Ranch. I had missed them because they were making a supposed "delivery", whatever that is. I winced. There so much stuff about this culture that I don't know and it is sort of overwhelming.

"Hey, Malon, come over here and help your dad with these groceries!" We turned to see her dad hobbling over to us with three big bags of groceries. I wanted to explode with laughter, but not because of how comical he looked. It was because I recognized him. He was the man that I had asked where Zelda lived to and, when he made fun of the question, blamed it on my fairy. My fairy had been angry at me, but I told her that there was a low chance that we'd ever see him again. Yet, here he is and it looks like we might be staying with him. What are the chances that something ironic like that were to happen?

Malon ran over and I decided to follow her. Once he saw me he questioned Malon.

"Who's he?"

"He's a friend. He's new to town and he needs a place to stay. Don't you think we should lend him a helping hand?" He shrugged.

"Sure, I'm sure my sister-in-law would agree." He turned to me. "Name's Talon. I would shake your hand, but I'm a bit occupied at the moment. You are?"

"I'm Link." I was sort of relieved he couldn't shake my hand for some reason. Maybe it was because I didn't like physical contact that much.

"Hey, I think I've met you before...somewhere." Just as he said that, my fairy reluctantly flew back to my side. She obviously didn't want to go through with this anymore. Talon's eyes brightened. "I know who you are now, Link. You're that kid with the borderline retarded fairy! How is she anyway?"I grinned.

"You can ask her yourself. She's not that stupid." I heard her mutter something insulting under her breath.

"Well, okay then." Looking at my fairy, he said, "How-are-you?"

"I'M NOT BORDERLINE RETARDED! YOU DON'T HAVE TO TALK TO ME LIKE THAT! I CAN UNDERSTAND YOU JUST FINE! OKAY?!" Talon was silenced for a minute, but he soon broke into laughter.

"I know that! I'm just poking fun at you. No need to take it seriously, okay miss?" I heard my fairy grumble again.

"Fine, sorry I took it so seriously."After a second she also said, "and for yelling at you."

"No harm was done to me, miss! Next time I poke fun at you, you'll know. Oka y?" Her mood was lightening a little as she began to get back into a good mood.

"Yeah." I smiled. I'm glad this wasn't taken too far. If my fairy continued like that she might have been an unbearable partner. Talon was looking at me now, probably sizing me up.

With a big grin, he said, "You look like a strong lad. Instead of Malon helping me, I think I'll make you useful and make you carry some of the bags. After all, you will be staying with us." He handed me two of the three bags, but then a thoughtful look came across his face. "You know, since you are staying with us, most likely for free, I think I'll make you carry everything. Just so you're not a complete burden." I was already over the edge with two bags, so I was skeptical at holding another one.

"Um...sir? I don't think-" It was too late. The third bag was already in my arms and I had to give it my all. If I dropped one of them then that would definitely be bad, especially if I want to win their favor. Which I might. These people might be useful in my later exploits. Maybe as informants or as way to get supplies. It was definitely a good idea to have at least one ally in an unknown area. Of course, that might be harder to achieve if I dropped even one of these bags. Still achievable, but I don't want to make it any harder.

As I was struggling with all three, Malon couldn't help but giggle at my face. It was turning red, because of the effort put in, and apparently that was hilarious. I don't see how though.

Talon just patted me on the back, saying, "That's it, boy! Keep it up, we only have a few blocks till we reach the house." I gave a very strained nod and he just returned it, walking past me in the direction of his home. I slowly followed him with Malon moving to my side.

The walk to the house was painful, but not as painful as walking down the street with Malon glaring at me with pity. Of course, the pity may have been well placed. Those bags weighed a ton! What in the world could they have bought! The more I carried them, the heavier they got. Soon beads of sweat were dripping down my forehead. Malon seemed a little concerned at how I was doing, or maybe she was just worried about the groceries.

Either way, she said, "You know, you could give one to me. I'm stronger than I look." I gave her a glare.

"I'm fine. I've got this." She just shrugged. Looking up into the sunless sky, she laughed.

"You're just like my mom, except for the fact you're a boy. My mom was always acting so tough. It was all just an act though. Beneath it, she was really the most sensitive, empathetic, and compassionate person in the world." She paused for a second. "Is that how you're like, fairy boy?" After I didn't respond, she continued, "Well, I think you are. I don't buy into that macho act. Maybe that comes from living with my mom. I can see the signs." She looked down at the floor, as if the memories brought her unwanted pain. "Maybe that's why my dad fell in love with her." With a smile on her face, she said, "He's not tough at all! Such a lazy guy! But, when it comes down to it, he really is the best!" She looked at me and snickered. "That's why he gave you those bags. It's not because he wants any payment from you for staying with us. It's because he's one of the laziest persons you'll ever meet!"

I almost dropped a bag when she said that. Some of what she said sounded way too familiar. Thinking back to what my fairy said, I recognized a little of it.

"It cares for people, more than it cares to admit. With everything you kill you feel a sort of compassion for the victim, even if it's just microscopic. That part of you is everything the hero is supposed to be and right now the two sides are at conflict." My fairy had said that. I could remember it as clear as day. Now a random girl, that I just barely met today, is telling me something similar. She already had me analyzed as much as my fairy? The girl truly was remarkable.

Sensitivity, empathy, and compassion. When someone's goal is power, are those qualities a weakness? Do those qualities build up or tear down a warrior? If I really do possess those qualities, would it be wise to deaden them? To make sure I never feel them again? Would I still be a Kokiri if I did that? Are those really everything the hero is supposed to be?

Those questions and my change of focus numbed the strain my body was going through, so that I didn't even notice that we had reached their house. Malon shook me into reality and I realized how big the house was. It was easily just as big as the hotel I had first stayed in. I was amazed and stupefied. Based on everything I had seen in Castle Town, everything around had to be bought by rupees. If something like that hotel room costed 75 rupees, than I wonder how much this nice house cost!

"This is your relative's house?" Malon just looked up at it with a look of wonder.

"Yep. It's pretty cool, isn't it?" I nodded my head exuberantly. Talon finally got the door open and led me in. Inside was the largest room I'd ever seen. It had a colorful rug in the middle of the floor and many hallways that led to other rooms. It even had to stairways on opposite sides of the room that led to the second floor.

"Come over here, Link. The dining room is this way." I kept walking and was soon in the room. The dining room had one long table in the middle of the room that could easily seat 20. There were plenty of cabinets along the walls and some counters as well. Talon directed me to place the groceries on the table. It was hard to lift them high enough to get on the table, but with one good push, I succeeded. Talon threw me an approving nod and yelled to Malon that he was going to turn in for the night. Malon yelled goodnight and then turned to me.

"You want to see what kind of room you'll get?" I shrugged.

"Sure."

**End of Flashback**

"Link, you gonna make your move?" I awoke from my thoughts and looked at my fairy. "You've been staring at that guard for a few minutes now. If you don't make your move we'll miss our opening." I nodded my heard.

"Sorry. Let's do this." Although the task at hand had been reawakened to me, I didn't feel the same excitement I had before. My mind was still dwelling on the questions that had been brought back to my attention. As I jumped down onto the dirt path, I looked at the castle that held the mysterious princess Zelda. Something told me I'd find my answers in there. And even if I didn't, I would keep looking.

I _was_ going to find the answer!

* * *

**Author's note: Finally! A new chapter! Sorry to keep you guys waiting for so long! Life has been a little hectic. First, I started to suffer from writer's block, then my computer broke down, and then school piled on a huge amount of work. At least I've finally got it out, though.**

**This chapter is only half of what I wanted to do. The original concept for this chapter became a little too long, so I split it in two. The second half will be for the next chapter. I guess you could say this chapter is a little fillerish, but it does set up for some cool things I have planned out for later on. I personally didn't like this chapter as much as my other ones, but the quality is always up for you guys to decide. I guess I'll leave it at that.**

**Till next chapter.**


	9. Reconnaissance and surveillance

Chapter 9

I was running along the dirt path next to the grassy hill. The castle's dirt road was a long path that eventually led to the drawbridge and into the castle. There was a huge green grassy field that stood right in the middle of the property and instead of going through it, the path led around it and eventually to the entrance of the castle. I don't understand why it goes around it instead of through it. Maybe they wanted to preserve the field's natural beauty, but I wasn't one to complain. Especially since that weird design is the thing giving me my opening now.

The opening I'm talking about is created through a very simple loophole. See, the gate where the guard stopped me originally is heavily protected. But there is a way to get past that and after that, it's a free go for awhile. The guards protecting the gate never expects anyone to use the vines to climb over them and continue on the path. The other guards positioned around the area don't look there either for exactly the same reason. Why would they expect someone to do what I'm doing? Which was exactly the reason I did it. One of the most basic rules for thieves, was simple. Be unpredictable. If the enemy can predict what you're going to do then you've already lost. That rule was my favorite and I loved applying it.

Now that I was in the guard's blind spot, I continued to run along the grassy hill. I clung to the grass for two reasons. Number one was that my tunic was green and would be harder to spot in a green area. Of course, it definitely wasn't the perfect camouflage, but it worked because of the time I was pulling this off. It was barely turning into morning and the night shift guards were going to soon be relieved. Due to their all night duty, they would be drowsy at this point in time and not at all alert. This was the only reason my camouflage would work.

The second reason was that my next move could be accessed easier that way. My next move consisted of, simply put, running across the grassy field. I could only run so far on the dirt path until I ran into a group of guards. Knowing that problem left only one option. I had to run across the field. Some of the same rules apply for the run across the grassy field as did for my run on the dirt path. My imperfect camouflage could still provide me minor protection from detection in the area. The thing that I really had to rely on though, was speed. Unlike some of the other areas, the guards actually did scan the field for intruders. The intervals in which they checked for intruders wasn't that big, so speed was essential.

I was reaching the turning point and I immediately looked for the bushes, which would keep me from being seen by the two immediate guards. They were right where I expected to be and as soon as I was close enough, I jumped right next to them and out of sight. I could now hear the two guards engaged in conversation. I listened in for a second before concluding that it wasn't important. All it was, was some lame talk about their personal life. Like that's important to anything. I tried to peek at where they were facing, so that I could get a cue on where to go. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good enough look without endangering my position. Seeing my predicament, my fairy flew high up. She was high enough that noone would notice her, but if I looked up I could read any signal she tried to give me.

I sat there looking at her for awhile, but she soon gave the signal and I made my brake for it. I was in good physical shape and that was definitely useful here. The field whizzed past me quickly while I watched for guards. Soon I reached the stone wall that, according to my fairy, I could definitely scale. I guess we'd find out now. I was out of the guards way, so I knew I could relax on this part of the crime. I quickly found my footing on the wall and began my trek up. I was soon on the top, where I could finally see the castle up close.

My entire journey through the field had finally led my to this area and I was ecstatic. Once the outside was clear, half the journey would be complete. Half way to the princess. It was an intoxicating thought. Once I saw her, I would be able to continue my journey and gather more power. Waiting time was almost over.

I neared the edge of the cliff I was on and peered down. There was another dirt pathway, but that wasn't the thing I was interested in. I was interested in the body of water right next to the dirt pathway. Malon called it a moat and I figured it was an okay name. I didn't understand why they named it that, but when I asked Malon about it she just shrugged.

I looked back before jumping in and once again my excitement climbed. I can't believe I just outsmarted all those stupid guards! This was nothing like any of the other exploits I had done in the Kokiri Village. This was just great! Finally a challenge that exercised my own skills. I was basking in the glory of my own ingenious plan, which me and my fairy had come up with. Just thinking about it made my adrenaline run.

**Flashback**

"So, can you explain to me why we are back at the castle?" My fairy was flying around in impatient patterns and just looking at her made me want to delay answering. If only to annoy her. "I mean, if you're not going in now, what's the point?" I continued to set up my workstation. I placed my drawing utensils neatly along the ground right in front of the area of the castle. Once I had them organized in the way that suited me, I began to place myself in the correct manner. I was now lying down on my belly facing my own art instruments. I lifted up the pen and began to draw.

"Well, you see fairy, an important part of the thieving process is to know the environment in which you're stealing from. You need to know everything the enemy knows. Or, at least enough to keep you one step ahead of the opponent. If you don't, the mission will end up being a big fat failure." I said everyone one of those words while continuing to move the tip of the pen along the paper. Making something that resembled the outside of the castle and its surrounding area.

"I guess that's sensible." She began to take a look at my drawing. "Link, that looks nothing like what is right in front of you! Everything is out of proportion! That tree is almost a fourth the size of the castle! If you're going to draw it, at least do it right!"

"Look, it doesn't have to be completely accurate! As long as it gives you the gist of where everything is, it doesn't matter!" I sighed. Why did she have to be such a perfectionist? And what in the world gave her the idea I could draw?! I'm only twelve for goddess's sake! Sure I was a pretty well accomplished thief, but that didn't mean I could draw. Being a thief is much easier anyway.

"Sure, whatever." I nodded, glad she didn't continue to pursue the drawing issue. She probably came to the conclusion it was pointless anyway. Now that I could concentrate on the drawing I had it finished in no time. "So, now that you have that done, now what?" I got up from my laid position and crossed my arms while looking at the castle.

"We're going to have to get a look at the inside to complete the reconnaissance." Instead of bursting out and exclaiming things like how in the world are we going to do that, she just floated there while giving me a suspicious look.

"I'm pretty sure you have a logical approach to this, but may I ask how you plan on going inside to get a look on the inside, so that you can draw the inside, so you can break into the inside?" I chuckled.

"It's not like that. _I'm_ not going inside. _You_ are. In my current state, I probably couldn't even get in. You're a fairy though. You're much more smaller than I am. You're faster and you can fly. If you're careful, you should be able to get in and out of the castle just fine. You'll note how many floors it has, where every room is, every entrance and exit a room has, and everything in each room. Everything important anyway. I let her take all this in, before saying, "What do you think? You up for it?

She heaved a heavy sigh, before declaring, "So you want me to do all that, without getting caught? Sounds like fun." I grinned from ear to ear.

"Well, since you're such a top-notch fairy, I figured that this would be an appropriate test of your skills. I mean, if you can't do this then what makes you think you can keep up with _me_ for the rest of our journey?" Her life force glow flickered in an almost indignant way.

"Are _you_ challenging me?" Her voice was a bit dark, but I knew it was just an act. I've known her long enough to know when she's playing with me.

While maintaining my goofy grin, I said, "Only if you're up to it."

"Of course I'm up for it! You want me to go now?" I nodded.

"Yeah, the sooner we get this done the better." She began to fly off, but just before she got too far, she turned.

"I still think you should consider my idea. I mean, is it really that bad?" I cringed.

"We are not hiding in one of Talon's delivery crates and being delivered to the castle! There's so much stuff wrong with that plan it's not even funny! Don't mention it again!" She made a shrugging motion.

"I still think it would be easier." I rolled my eyes.

"Just go!"

**End of Flashback**

I jumped off the cliff, landed in a roll on the dirt road, and continued that roll into the moat. I hit the water and I was once again reminded of why I hated water. It was so wet! Even though my landing wasn't as bad as the one I had in the Deku Tree, it was definitely colder. I flailed my arms around and fought my back to the surface.

As soon as I was able to breathe, I opened my eyes and surveyed the area. The moat's current was pushing me to the right, just as I expected it to. It wasn't strong, but it was strong enough to make the ride quick enough. I soon reached a small hill that allowed me to barely be able reach my hands onto ground-level soil. I slowly pulled myself up and over onto the ground. I paused to catch my breath, before turning my head to see if everything would be exactly where it should be.

I smiled as I saw everything in position. Talon delivered milk to the castle every two weeks and, as I learned from Malon, he always leaves his delivery right here. And, as I learned from my fairy, the castle servants usually attend to it the afternoon after he delivers it. I don't know if it's because their so busy or something, but it doesn't matter. All I care about is that I can use that particular habit to complete my theft easier, and that's all that matters.

My smile didn't last long though, As soon as I noticed everything was in position, my eyes began to take in the whole picture. Unfortunately that included Talon sleeping exactly where I needed to move the crates. I don't understand how such an unexpected event could happen, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that it happened and now I have to deal with it. I rolled my eyes in annoyance. Just what I needed.

Oh well, I'd found him. Malon would be happy. He was in an inconvenient location, but he was found none the less. I walked up to him slowly, so that I wouldn't wake him up, and I once I reached him I bent down and got a good look. Drool was dripping off his lips and I could tell he was cold just by looking at him. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. He didn't smell the best right now either.

"So, how would you say we should move him?" My fairy flew up to my eye level.

"Well, we definitely can't just wake him up." I nodded my head, agreeing.

"Yeah. If we did that then that would just blow our whole operation."

"So, what we need to do is wake him up so that he can move, without ever alerting him of our presence. Any ideas?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't that what I asked you?" When she just shrugged, I continued, "Well, do you see any rocks?"

"So...you want to hit him with a rock? That's simple, I guess."

"Do you see any or not?" I shook my head. It's simple yes, but we didn't have time to come up with anything more elaborate. She should understand that.

"Yeah, I see one that should work. It's over there." She flew over to it and I walked up to it, picking it up to survey it. It was big enough to cause some pain, but small enough so that it could be easily thrown from a distance and that it wouldn't hurt him too much. I gripped it tightly.

"Good eye, Navi." Now that that issue was taken care of, I ran behind one of the crates with my fairy in tow. I positioned myself carefully so that I could see Talon perfectly. I took aim with the rock and threw it with enough force that I thought would wake him. The rock flew true to its course and nailed Talon straight on the head.

As expected, he immediately jumped up and yelled, "What in tarnation! Can't a person get a little shut ey-?" He paused and began to notice his surroundings. "How di- I must ha- Malon!" As soon as he screamed that he began to take off. "If I don't get back soon Malon's gonna have my head!"

Him running away was so comical. Who could've ever guessed that a little girl could inspire such fear in a grown man? It sort of fascinated me, but I shook those thoughts from my head. Now wasn't the time.

I began to push the crates to the edge of the ground, near the moat. Right connected to the castle was a passageway which is where the water circulated between the moat and the castle's inner gardens. Zelda always had her breakfast in the garden, alone. It was all set up so perfectly, it was almost as if they wanted me to break in.

If I could get the crate in the right position, then I should be able to use it as leverage to jump into the passageway. The crate was in position and so was I. I readied myself to jump and then jumped. My body hit the castle wall hard, but luckily, my hand was able to catch just enough of the edge to keep myself from falling into the uninviting water. I pulled myself up onto the castle surface. I took a second to calm myself down before continuing on into the passageway, that for some reason, reminded me strangely of the type of tunnels I crawled in inside the Deku Tree.

I was now inside the castle. I was standing inside a pond of some sort. There was a bit of grass here and there, but the path leading to where the princess breakfasted was clearly defined be concrete floors. Not a guard in sight either. Just like my fairy said.

I smiled. Nice.

I walked along the path carefully. I had memorized every guard's position, but it wouldn't kill me to take extra precautions. As I walked along the path I managed to sidestep every guard that ever crossed my path. Not a single one noticed me. My fairy and I had planned this part of the exploit so perfectly it made me want to make a mistake on purpose. Just to make things harder.

**Flashback **

"So, is that about right?" My fairy bobbed up and down the multiple papers that were supposed to represent the interior of the castle. While I waited I plopped myself onto my own bed. After my fairy got back from the inside, we had agreed that it would be better to put all the info together in our room. It was a very fancy room that was organized in much the same way my hotel room had been. The only huge difference was the difference in quality. The bed was way softer here, for one.

After much inspection, she said, "Well, I'd say it looks a lot better than the exterior. Probably good enough by your standards. So, that completes the maps, right?" I shook my head.

"Nope. There is just one more detail that needs to be added."

"Like what?"

"Well, what we just did was the reconnaissance mission. There is still one more step before I can fully plan this." My fairy shifted around in the air uncomfortably.

"And that is?"

"Surveillance. We need to know how their surveillance system works by enacting our own. What I need now is guard patterns. How many of them are there, where are they positioned, do their positions change, if so, how, when do their shifts end, where do they begin, and how attentive are the guards? I'll need that kind of information if we plan on pulling this off." My fairy sighed.

"This job probably goes to me, doesn't it?" I shrugged.

"You are best suited." She groaned.

"I don't want to go inside again. It's such a weird place!" She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "How long should this take?"

"This process should take several days. There's no way we can gather all that information in a day." She heaved another sigh.

"This is annoying." She gave me a stern look. "And what are _you_ going to be doing throughout all this?" I tensed in my shoulders.

"Umm...well, how should I say this? Since I don't really have anything to do, I'll be hanging out with Malon. She already invited me to play some games over in the castle market tomorrow and I said yes."

"Ugh, I should have known. Link, I'm glad that you found another female companion to fill in the gap when you lost Saria, but we have an important duty to fulfill. I can't allow you to be distracted." I got up from the bed to face her face to face.

"It's not like that! She isn't distracting me! And there is no way that the only reason I want to spend time with her is because of Saria! Saria was a good friend to me and it did hurt when I left, but there is _no_ way I would confuse feelings like that!"

"I hope you're right. Both girls deserve better than that." We stopped for a while. I didn't want to say anything. Could it be possible that I was mixing up my feelings between the two girls?

No.

It wasn't possible.

Saria was my best friend back at the village. The only one to ever acknowledge me, besides Jeb. She raised me and took care of me for most of my life. She was the most nurturing person I had ever met.

Malon, on the other hand, was a girl I had met only recently. Right off the bat, she was the first one to catch me in the middle of my theft. She could keep up with my wit in conversation and she could easily infuriate me. I found her a fascination. Something about her was different than any girl I had ever met. I was curious. Curious about her past, how she became the way she was, who her mother was, and more importantly, what it felt like to have parents that actually cared about you. I was curious, that's all.

The two feelings I had for both girls were _entirely_ different.

"So, when do we start?" asked my fairy.

**End of Flashback**

I was running now. I cursed as I ran. The guard completed his round fifteen seconds before planned.

Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!

I turned the corner quickly, without much thought of what could have been in front of me. I rounded a few more corners, keeping on the path that led to the princess. I stopped and began to listen for any sign of being followed. When none were heard, I let go a sigh of relief.

That was way too close.

I looked in the to the left and finally I could see what I came for. A girl was standing in the gardens with her back to me, looking out a window. She was wearing a long dress that was white with mild shades of purple on it. I couldn't tell much because of the distance, but I could tell that she was upperclass, a term I learned from Malon. Apparently there was a lower class, a middle class, and an upperclass. I shook my head. Not the time to be thinking about that.

The room was very round and in the middle was a field of yellow flowers. Surrounding it all was a beautiful pond of water. I took a quick look at my reflection in the mirror. Once I made sure I looked as good as possible, I began to walk toward her. After all, if I was going to be visiting royalty it was probably courteous to look nice.

* * *

**Author's note: This is my first fanfiction story. Any constructive critism is welcomed and appreciated.**

**Well, I think I'll dedicate this chapter to Mental Angel who had his/her birthday around now. I guess you can consider it a late birthday present. Thank's for reading!**


	10. Princess Zelda's Plans

Chapter 10

Princess Zelda turned around. The moment, at least for me, was drenched with tension. I didn't know how she would react to seeing me. I didn't know if she would scream or be quiet and reason with me. I was prepared if she tried to alert anyone though. My body was tensed and ready to silence her by force if necessary. Of course, I kinda hoped it wouldn't be necessary.

Zelda made no such bad move though.

All she did was turn around and give me a confused look, saying, "Who are you? How did you get past the guards?" I felt a huge lump in my throat and it wasn't getting any smaller. I wasn't sure what to say. Was I supposed to just tell her that I broke in to see her because a giant tree that is like my father told me too? That would just sound weird.

Luckily, she spoke before I could.

"Wait, is that a fairy?!" She looked me over cautiously, but efficiently, probably not missing a single detail of my appearance. To be honest, all the probing made me feel uncomfortable. "Then...you wouldn't happen to be from the forest, would you?"

The lump in my throat was subsiding, so I felt prepared to answer this question, but it looked like she took my short moment of silence as a yes.

Continuing, she said, " Then, would you happen to have the Spiritual Stone of the Forest? You know, the green and shining stone!" She looked like she was getting really excited, so I didn't want to disappoint her. Instead of attempting to answer her in words, I reached into my pouch and pulled the stone out.

As soon as she saw it her blue eyes widened, her hands clasped together, and she squealed with delight. I was a bit taken aback by this response. There was no way she could have even known anything about me like this, right? What kind of girl was this?

"Just as I thought!" When she saw my confused face, she threw me a sweet smile. "Let me explain myself. You see, I had a dream. In the dream, dark storm clouds were billowing over the land of Hyrule. But suddenly, a ray of light shot out of the forest, parted the clouds, and lit up the ground. The light turned into a figure holding a green and shining stone, followed by a fairy." She paused, intentionally building suspense in what she was about to say next. "I know this was a prophecy that someone would come from the forest. As soon as I saw you, I had my suspicions. Now, it seems they have been confirmed."

This girl is as amazing as everyone says she is. What kind of ability is that? Can she possibly predict the future? Maybe her family line possesses gifts that the normal population doesn't. Maybe that's the reason they're the royal family and no other family was.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" I was lost in my own thoughts and this brought me back. I was a bit confused as to why she was sorry, but I waited for her to explain it and she did. "I got all carried away with my story I didn't even properly introduce myself!" She positioned herself to stand completely straight and flipped her blonde hair out of her face, preparing herself for her next statement. "I am Zelda, princess of Hyrule. What is your name?"

I gave a cocky smile as I realized she finally would let me verbally answer one of her questions. It was nice knowing she didn't know everything.

"I'm Link, of the Kokiri." I added the title to make myself sound a bit more important. After all, she got one. She cocked her head to the side and for a moment she looked completely lost in thought.

"Strange, your name sounds familiar somehow, Link." Her name brought no feelings of deja vu to me, so I had no idea what she was talking about. Of course, it might be rude to just blurt whatever I'm thinking out loud, so I kept my mouth shut, for the most part.

"Okay then, Link," she said, continuing. "We don't have much time, so I'm going to explain to you the reason I think you're here. What I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room. All of Hyrule could be in danger if this information falls into the wrong hands. Promise me you'll keep it a secret!"

I was surprised she was trusting me so easily. If I was in her position, there was no way I'd ever trust anyone so soon. To me, that was naive. Then again, maybe she trusted in her own ability to dream the future enough that she knew for a fact that I could be trusted. I sighed mentally. This was all pretty stressful. To move things along, I nodded my head, only partially meaning it. I would keep everything a secret _only_ if it benefitted me. If something better came up, I _wasn't_ going to hesitate to take it.

Zelda smiled and returned the nod.

When I saw that smile the only word that popped up in my head was, _naive._

Zelda took a deep breath, and continued, "Well, here it goes. I'm going to tell you the secret of the sacred realm that has been passed down by the royal family of Hyrule."

Sacred Realm, huh? I smiled, remembering everything that the Deku Tree had told me. This could get interesting.

"The legend goes like this. The three goddesses, that I'm sure you've heard of, hid the sacred triangles containing the power of the goddesses, which is called the Triforce, somewhere in Hyrule. That power has the ability to grant the wish of the one who holds it in his hands. If someone with a righteous heart makes a wish, then it will lead the land into a golden age of prosperity. If someone with an evil mind has his wish granted, the world will be consumed with evil. That's what's been told. So, the ancient Sages built the temple of time to protect the Triforce from evil ones.

"That's right. The Temple of Time is the entrance through which you can enter the Sacred Realm from our world. But the entrance is sealed with a stone wall called the door of time. And, in order to get in, you need to collect three spiritual stones." She indicated the stone that still laid in my hands. "It appears you have already collected one. One other thing you need is the that the Royal Family keeps along with this legend. The Ocarina of Time! Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?"

All she was telling me strange and filling me with strange ideas. How could such a power be kept in Hyrule with _noone _noticing? More importantly, how could they not just take this power for themselves? You'd think that they'd want it. All this confused me and was beginning to make me rethink what I thought about people. Noone could be that righteous, could they? Even more important than that, what could Zelda possibly be planning with that information?

"Yes, I understand everything you've said."

"That's Great!" Suddenly, her eyes widened in surprise and she looked back towards the window that was just behind her. "I forgot to tell you something! I was spying through this window just now. The other element in my dream, the dark clouds, I believe they symbolize that man in there!" She motioned me towards it. "Hurry and look before he goes away!"

I was interested to see who Zelda was so afraid of, so I immediately made my way over to the window to check. What I saw was a green man, exactly like the man from my dreams. I was dumbfounded. Could I have the same ability as Zelda? Just how were we all connected?

Ganondorf, if I remembered his name correctly, was in a bowed position, probably facing the king. I couldn't see who he was facing, so that was my best guess. I could hear some of their conversation due to my sharp ears and I was eager to listen in.

"The negotiations with all neighboring countries is going well, my lord." That was Ganondorf.

"You've done well."

Keeping his eyes down, Ganondorf said, " I believe we have them right where we want them."

"Good. This is a cause for celebration! Tonight, we'll eat and drink together in your honor." Ganondorf gave him a humble look.

"But sir, I'm merely your servant. A servant doesn't need to be exalted. Fulfilling your desire is exaltation enough for me." The king laughed.

"Nonsense. Come, we'll begin the preparations." I heard the footsteps of the king distance themselves away from the area, but Ganondorf just got up. His eyes narrowed downward and his brows furrowed in concentration. Then he turned his head and looked directly at me, his eyes meeting my own.

I almost turned away, but I kept up the contact. There was something familiar about them. In a weird way, they reminded me of my own eyes. I could see their thirst. Their thirst for power, which was identical to mine. I was filled with wonder and disorientation. I got the distinct feeling that we were the same. In desire and mind. I wanted to explore that a bit more, but Zelda pulled me away from the window. Just before I was out of hearing range I heard the king shout.

"Are you coming Ganondorf?"

"Yes, I'm coming." The footsteps trailed off and were soon gone.

"Did he see you?" I was still a little disoriented from what had just happened, but I managed to pull off a nod. "That man is Ganondorf, leader of the Gerudos. They hail from the desert far to the west. Though he swears allegiance to my father, I am sure that he isn't sincere. The dark clouds that covered Hyrule in my dream must symbolize that man!"

I'm guessing she could sense my uneasiness, because she continued with, "Don't worry. He has no idea what we're planning. At least, no yet!" I gave her a weird look. Not even _I _know what you're planning.

"Well, not to be troublesome or anything, but what exactly are we planning?" She laughed.

"It's no trouble at all! In fact, I should go over the full details of our plans anyway. Well, to start it off, I'm very sure that Ganondorf's main objective is to get the Triforce. That must be why he's trying so hard to get close to my father! In order to keep that from happening we must get to it first! I'll watch over the Ocarina of Time and your job will be to gather the other two Spiritual Stones. One is with the Gorons and the other is with the Zora. Once they are together we will unlock the door of time and enter the Sacred Realm, thus claiming the Triforce. All of this will be done before Ganondorf has any idea what's going on! Do you understand what we're doing?"

I smirked.

"Sounds like a good plan to me." She returned the cocky grin.

"Once we have the Triforce, Ganondorf won't stand a chance! We'll defeat him and bring peace to the land. Sound good?"

"Definitely." Her eyes lit up for about the third time.

"Oh, you should take this. I writ it up beforehand, just in case you ever did show up." She handed me a piece of paper with her autograph. I didn't bother to read through it, but I was sure to look over it later. "I'm sure it will be helpful on your journey."

"Thanks." She nodded eagerly and motioned for me to leave.

"Quickly go! There's no time to waste!" I gave her one last nod before turning around and walking off. I had many ideas rushing through my head and a plan was formulating of my own.

"Wait, Link!" My thoughts interrupted, I turned back to Zelda. "There's one more thing I want to tell you! I'm sure you've heard of the murders going on around town, correct?"

I shook my head in confirmation. I haven't given much thought to the murders ever since I saw that poor girl. I wonder...

"Well, I wanted to know if you'd be wiling to look into those. The Hyrule Castle Guards will never catch the killer I'm sure. He's too...elusive. To help you out, I've got a suspect. I think the murderer is Ganondorf. It would make sense in my opinion. Anyway, if you can look into it, then great, but if you can't I totally understand. This side mission shall in no way take priority over our other goals. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I understand perfectly."

"Good luck!" I turned around and continued to leave. I was interested in looking into these murders as well. Whoever killed them, Ganondorf or not, had a ton of power. I needed to see his power in action in order to figure out how much more power I needed to gather.

As I was making my way out I was stopped by a powerful looking woman in tight clothing. She had grey hair and red eyes. The way she stood told me one thing: this woman was in control and if you defied that control your going to die. I approached her cautiously, ready to defend myself if necessary. As soon as I got close enough, she spoke.

"I'm Impa of the Sheikahs. I am responsible for protecting Zelda. Everything the Princess has foretold has come to be. My role in the Princesses dream was to teach you a melody that would help you on your journey. What I'm about to teach you is an ancient melody passed down by the Royal Family. I have played this song for Zelda ever since she was a baby as a lullaby. There is mysterious power in these notes. Now listen carefully and match it with your Ocarina."

I gave her a weird look. How'd she know I had an Ocarina? I shrugged it off though. These people are strange, but it's better not to question them. I pulled it out, positioned myself to play, and listened for the notes.

Impa lifted her fingers up to her mouth and began to whistle into her fingers. The sound came out and I heard the notes. I listened to her play it once and then tried to match it. My first time I got a fourth of the way there before I made a mistake. I kept going though. The quicker I could master this, the quicker I could get on with my plans.

It took me a total of ten tries, but I eventually made it to the end. Once I did that I played again, just to make sure I had it. It came out perfectly. I smiled. Excellent, that was simple enough.

"That song is called, Zelda's lullaby," Impa declared. She looked backwards and towards the empty halls. "If the castle guards see you there will be trouble." She shrugged. "But since you made it this far, I suppose there is no harm in letting you get back on your own. Besides, something tells me you'd enjoy it." The last sentence she said was faintly dripped in maliciousness. I seemed to get the feeling that she disliked me, but I was okay with that. She wasn't my favorite person either.

With that being said, she reached into her own pouch and pulled out a deku nut. She threw it to the ground and I instinctively threw my hands up to guard my face. As soon as the flash was over, I looked and took note that Impa had disappeared. Strange, was my only thought. I wish I could do that...

Seeing no reason to stay put, I made my down the halls and towards the exit. My trail of thoughts once again made their way to my future plans. Something told me that I shouldn't be thinking this way, but that voice was small.

"Wow, that's amazing Link! We get to see the Sacred Realm! How cool is that?!" I looked up at my fairy, who had amazingly been quiet that entire time.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Oh cheer up! Who else will be able to say, 'I've seen the Sacred Realm'? Noone!" I hadn't really been paying attention to her, my thoughts were too disorganized. Suddenly, my mind came to it's decision. I was going to do it.

"Oh, Navi. I need to ask you something."

"Yeah, sure, what is it, Link?"

"I need you to go ahead and tell Malon that I'll be late for our meeting later today. She'll be mad if I don't tell her anything."

"Well, what are you going to be doing?"

"I have one more thing I need to ask Zelda. Don't worry, I can get back just fine. Just go." My fairy gave me a suspicious stare, but bobbed her body, indicating that she was in agreement.

"Thanks."

"Just hurry."

I turned around and left back towards Zelda's garden. As soon as my fairy was out of seeing distance though, I changed direction.

I needed to have a little chat with Ganondorf.

* * *

**Author's note: This is my first fanfiction story. Any constructive critism is welcomed and appreciated.**

**Well, I'm glad I finally got this chapter up. I'm sorry for the long wait, but school was troublesome. I'm also sorry I couldn't make it any longer, but I wanted the next bit to be its own whole chapter. Thank you for everyone is sticking to reading this, you're totally appreciated. **

**Until next time, which hopefully won't be a whole month...**


	11. Link's Plans

Chapter 11

Ganondorf looked like he was one big party pooper. He was sitting all by himself at a party dedicated to him. The party was certainly grand though. There were many foods that I would enjoy feasting into, especially since I hadn't eaten anything all day. I tried to keep my mind off that though. I needed to stay focused.

I'd been here for a few hours. I saw them prepare for the party and now they had been having it for about half an hour. Ganondorf looked extremely bored and I was hoping he'd retire to his room soon. If he would just do that, then I could make my move.

Zelda wasn't present at the party and I wondered if that was because she didn't want to attend or if she wasn't allowed to. It wasn't important or anything, it was just something I was thinking of to keep myself from becoming as bored as Ganondorf was at the moment.

Plus, I was sure I was going to cramp up if I stayed in this position much longer. I was squished up against an opened door and a wall, with only a small little space to peak out of. Luckily, Ganondorf sat right in view, but I still didn't enjoy being in this position. There was a guard right next to me, but according to my fairy he was going to be relieved very soon. Once he switches there will be a five minute window to move somewhere else and if I don't take it then I'd be stuck here for another five hours.

I winced. Not a very desirable mental image. I kept peering through the little opening because I needed to find a good place to relocate myself, even if Ganondorf doesn't. There wasn't very much places to go. I was on the top floor. The party room consisted of one huge bottom floor that had tons of tables along with a space cleared for dancing. A lot of people showed up, even though it was a very late invitation.

I guess it just goes to show that the King of Hyrule is a very spontaneous guy and, it appeared, the people are used to his nature. Most spontaneous people that I know don't really think their moves through, they usually just jump in. Maybe that is why his is so trusting of Ganondorf. He isn't much of a thinker.

The top floor was like an indoor balcony. From up top you could see everything going on in the bottom. There were a few tables scattered about for people who like to sit on top, but I could tell they weren't very popular. Most civilians enjoyed the bottom, which is exactly why I chose the top.

I could hear the guard next to me grunt and then I heard his footsteps. He was leaving, so this was my chance. I slowly squeezed out from between the wall and the door. Looking for any onlookers, I came out fully. Once I was completely out I crouched low, so that my head was below the railing. People could still see me if they looked up, but it was unlikely. Most of the people wouldn't be looking for me, so that was to my advantage.

I moved to the edge of the rail and began to go along it. I shouldn't be in plain view of the next guard taking post. I stopped myself right next to a plant and decided it was the best camouflage I had at the moment. I was so close to getting on my knees and thanking the goddesses that I wore a green tunic, when Ganondorf got out of his seat.

He was moving up to the top floor, which was lucky for me. It would be troublesome to make a journey to the bottom, not to mention difficult. Now I just had to figure out which door on the top floor he was aiming for. I watched him and it seemed he was aiming for the door to my far right. It was the perfect distance for me. It was just far enough so that he wouldn't see and it was close enough that it was nearly impossible to lose him.

As soon as he was clearly in the doorway, I began to follow, careful not to attract any of the guards attention. I kept following him down a series of long passageways that, strangely enough, didn't have any guards. It seemed to defy all logic that there were no guards at all, but I wasn't complaining. This made my job easier. Ganondorf was reaching a hallway and turned, entering it. I was about to just walk into the same hallway when my ears picked up a man chattering with Ganondorf. I stopped myself at the corner and peered over, carefully keeping myself concealed.

I cursed. How was I going to get past this?! Ganondorf was just about done talking and was about to continue. If I didn't finish this soon I was going to lose him! I tensed up against the wall. I needed to think of a way past these guys!

Ganondorf was already on the move, which left me alone with the two guards. I needed to think of something quick! I didn't have any deku nuts, so blinding them was out of the picture. I cursed as I realized this was taking too long. There was only one way to do this.

I took my slingshot out. I would just have to attack them.

I wouldn't be able to just take aim, If I even showed myself a little they would see me. Right now I was cursing this green tunic. Why couldn't I be wearing anything darker? The only answer to my plight would be to totally expose myself and knock them out with my slingshot. I slipped the deku seed into the slingshot and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing…

I jumped out into the middle of the hallway and, to my deepest surprise, they were ready for me. Immediately I saw a spear being tossed at me, but thanks to how jumpy I was, I ducked, narrowly avoiding it.

In my ducked position, I took my slingshot and aimed for the part of their faces that were uncovered. I had him in my sights and fired. The seed hit its target dead on and the man fell over. While he fell over though, I had to dodge the spear of the other soldier.

He now had nothing to throw at me, so he took out his sword, which hung on his belt. I was determined to keep this long range, so I continued to fire seed after seed at him. He just blocked many of them with his own sword and, all those he couldn't block, he dodged with an expertise that frightened me.

I cursed as I realized anything long range wouldn't work with this guy. I put away my slingshot and pulled out my sword and shield. Once those two weapons were out, I charged him. I could make out a smug smile on his lips. He thought this was going to be an easy victory up close. Boy, was he wrong! I _wouldn't let _him be right!

Soon I was in his striking range and he didn't let his range advantage go to waste. He immediately began to barrage me with strikes. They were too fast for me to block with my sword, so I let my shield do that work. All those that my shield didn't get, my sword was sure to.

Soon I found a space that I could counter attack into. I lifted my sword to drive it into him, but I was too slow and his sword caught it easily. He laughed, but that only angered me. I decided it was time to use the only advantage that I seemed to have against him and that was size.

I was a little over half his size, so if I bent down a bit I could easily go under his legs. His legs were constantly open, probably so that he could have maximum mobility. He also probably wasn't used to facing people this small. It was decided.

As soon as there was another opening in his defense, I threw myself onto the ground and slid under him. As I slid, I brought my sword down onto his unprotected leg. As the sword cut into him, I could hear him scream in agony and he dropped.

He fell forward and onto his stomach. He twisted his body around on instinct so that he was facing upward and I made him pay for that mistake. As soon as his face was exposed I brought the flat side of my sword down upon him, knocking him out cold.

As soon as that was completed I laughed out loud, busting with happiness due to my victory. Sword in hand, I was about to continue on my way when a thought occurred to me. The guards were knocked out, but now what? They had seen my face and my easily recognizable green tunic. When they woke up, not only would they alert the other guards, but they'd know who I was. What other twelve year old boy wore a green tunic for goddesses sake! There was no way I was getting away with this now.

Worst of all what was I going to tell my fairy or Malon! I'd lose all the trust I was trying to build with them all over again! There would be wanted posters and reward money. Even if I cut my hair or changed my clothes there would be no way I could just walk around anymore. Too many people had gotten to know who I was. There was definitely _no_ way I could get around this

Unless, of course, I killed them.

The thought had crept up on me silently and yet I'd always known that it was an option. If I killed them they couldn't tell anyone. There would be no wanted posters or reward money. No one would ever give the boy in the green tunic a second glance on the street. There would be no reason to change my clothes or cut my hair. My relationship with my fairy and Malon would remain intact. If I killed them, I _would _get away with it.

I shook my head. I shouldn't be thinking this way. They have lives, they have wives and children. How could I just take their lives? How could I even think that I have the right to do that? I wasn't a god. Therefore, I had no reason to be playing god.

Yet a voice in my head told me, "But you are the hero _chosen_ by the goddesses, are you not?"

"I am, but-"

"No buts! You were chosen by the goddesses! Not anyone else! Why should you care about these things! You are above them. They should be _honored_ to be killed by you!"

"I'm the same as them! I shouldn't-"

"Do it! Before others come! Have you forgotten what you came here to do?! If you don't finish them now all your plans will be ruined! And you'll always be _weak_!" That last word hit home. If I failed to complete what I came here to do, I was sure to stay weak. I wouldn't get more power. I wouldn't be strong enough to defend my friends. I would remain a _failure._

I looked down at the two fallen guards. I closed my eyes and gently place my sword at the man's neck. I was getting close to hyperventilating now. I needed to focus.

"I'm sorry," I whispered before quickly slitting his throat. I could feel a tear run down my cheek and, somehow, I did the same to the other.

I opened my eyes and saw my own work. The blood was running fiercely down their throats. It was creating quite a big puddle in the hallway. Through my teary vision, I could make out the blood colliding into my knee. I couldn't feel it though. For some reason my whole body had gone numb.

I forced myself to my feet and, through sheer will power, continued pursuing Ganondorf. I had just about wiped the tears from my eyes when I ran into my biggest surprise of the evening. Ganondorf himself.

He seemed to have been waiting for me when I turned the corner. I was frozen. I was still too messed up mentally to do anything. He just blinked and cocked his head to the side. He looked me over and then stared at me in the eyes.

Finally, he spoke, saying, "Why are you following me?" I was still too disoriented to answer. Continuing, he said, "What? Are you surprised that I noticed? I'm Ganondorf! Nothing escapes me!"

I suddenly found the will to speak, and said, "Are you the one who alerted those guards?" Ganondorf just smiled.

"I needed to test you. And, needless to say, you passed. You did even more than I thought you would. You killed them in cold blood."

"It wasn't like that! I-"

"Just keep believing that kid. You could use a little work, considering your eyes are still red, but that wasn't bad. But anyway, we don't have much time, so tell me, why did you come?" The way he was talking to me was angering me and that anger was beginning to clear my head, so that I wasn't thinking about the two guards.

"What do you mean we don't have much time?"

"You just killed two guards that were going to be relieved very soon. Their replacements are coming and once they get there, time's up." I cursed. He had this all planned out and I fell for it. Dang it!

"Well, I'm here to offer you something." Ganondorf perked up.

"What could you possibly offer me?" I smirked.

"The Triforce." Ganondorf's eye's widened.

"And how would you get me that?"

"It's simple. The princess trusts me and she is the one that guards the Ocarina of Time. I'm also the only one who has a chance of getting the Spiritual Stones."

"And why do you say that?"

"Because if you could have gotten them, you would have already." Ganondorf smirked.

"And what do you want in return?" I paused.

"I want your power. I want to know everything you know. I want all the power you can give me." Ganondorf's smile broadened just as I heard shouts coming from down the hall. "I'll get you the Triforce if you train me. Deal?" Ganondorf stretched his hands out towards me and I took it.

"Deal." I nodded and took off. I needed to get out of here now! The guards were alerted and that meant they would be here soon. Before I left though, I ran to the nearest window and ripped a long curtain off from the walls. I wrapped it around me and ran off.

Just before I turned the corner, I heard, "Good choice." I agreed with Ganondorf. Now, if they saw me, they wouldn't be able to recognize my green tunic and they couldn't pin it on me. I ran down the hallways and tried to find a way down. The place was a maze though! My head wasn't clear enough to recall that map that I had spent so much time memorizing. I was running blind.

I was spending a lot of time maneuvering the passageways, but I still felt like I was in the same place. All of a sudden I turned a corner and ran into a group of three guards. They reacted quickly and tried to grab me. I reacted quicker though. I instinctively slipped under their legs and straight through them, without even losing much of my built up momentum. I ran down the hallway they were guarding, which I presumed was the way out.

I continued to run, with them hot on my trail, screaming for help. I winced. This wasn't looking good. Two guards jumped in front of me, attempting to cut me off. I heard the guards behind me telling them to watch their legs and so I knew they'd be ready for that. Instead I jumped upwards. I hit one of the guards in the chest and sent him sprawling to the ground. I was up quickly and immediately began to run again.

I was still on the top floors, so I knew I was nowhere near out of this mess, but I knew I couldn't keep this up forever. This was their home turf. No matter how much a thief prepares, if he runs into a situation like this, he has the disadvantage. I needed to get to a lower floor, now!

Once again I was being cut off by guards. There were three of them now and I knew charging them would do nothing. I couldn't fight them because if I did then I would have to reveal what I looked like. I couldn't got through that again. There was only one way out of this.

I jumped out the nearest window. I hugged the curtain that was covering my identity, so that I wouldn't lose it and braced myself. I could see the moat and I needed to hit it. That was my only chance.

I hit the water and immediately I made my way to the surface. This wasn't going to keep me away from them for long. I needed to keep moving. I recognized where I was for once. I was at the spot where Talon had fallen asleep. Now that I was familiar with where I was, I began to be filled with renewed hope.

I hopped out of the water and ran for the exit. All I had to do was bypass this wall and the rest of the way was straightforward. I hugged the curtain tighter to my body. Not only will this thing keep my identity safe, but it'll also keep me warm. I made my way to the gate door and, not surprisingly, there were two guards waiting for me.

I couldn't just charge them, so I tried something different. I ran past them, without even bothering to even try to go through the gate. When the saw me, they tried to give pursuit. They weren't ready for a fake out though. As soon as they had built up enough momentum, I turned sharply and went the opposite direction.

The guards reflexes were good, but the heavy armor they wore simply didn't allow them to pull off those kinds of maneuvers. I was now on the side I wanted to be and the guards were eating my dust. Things were finally looking up.

I was now cutting across the grassy field and I knew exactly where I need to go. I didn't even need to go towards the gate. The second gate was on the pathway that was in between a small valley like area. I was on the top of the valley. All I needed to do was jump down onto the right side and run into town. I was so close.

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I tripped and fell hard into the grass. I looked down at my leg and noticed that I had been scratched by an arrow. It only skimmed me, so at least I could keep going, but this told me something. They were getting serious now. It was a shoot to kill situation now. I needed to go now!

I reached the road, so I jumped. I rolled as soon as I hit the ground and kept on going. I could hear the rattle of armor and something else. I soon recognized it though. They were riding horses. I had first seen horses in castle town, as they needed them for the transport of certain things or people. The creatures were still a bit new to me and I still had a little trouble recognizing the sounds they make. There was no mistaking it though. They were using horses to track me down.

I picked up the pace.

I could now make out the town. Once we got to town the horses would be more of a burden than an aid. If I could just make it to town I know I could outrun the guards. I was almost there. I was so sure I could smell the fresh scent of beggars! The clang of the hooves on dirt was getting closer and I could feel the whizzing of arrows as they narrowly missed.

I was there though.

It was too late for them.

I had made it.

I ran down an alley and I heard them getting off their horses. By the time they got off it would be too late though. There were still people up and about, so I had to make sure I was by myself before I got rid of the curtain, but I knew a place where there would surely be no one.

The back alleys. The site of most of the famous murders. No one would risk their necks by going out there at this time of evening. I ran into the alley and, just as I expected, it was empty. I calmed down and moved from a fast run to a slow jog. I took off the curtain and placed it into a nearby garbage can.

I sighed. That was too close.

I heard the clanging of armor again though and I flinched. They couldn't have caught up this quick, could they? I knew this would never end unless I hid, but I couldn't find the right place. When the clanging kept getting closer, I made my decision.

I jumped into the trash can.

I brought the lid down on me to shut and tried to remain calm. The anxiety was killing me though! I could hear them walking near me. I tried to hold my breath, but I was failing miserably at it. I wasn't composed enough to do it properly.

They stayed put for awhile, probably searching. One of them began to walk away when the other reprimanded him.

"Hey! If you're going to do your job, do it right! Check the trash cans! It wouldn't be the first time we found someone hiding in there."

"Yes sir!" I tensed up completely. I didn't know what to do. If they searched the trash can, I was screwed. I would have to attack. As soon as he pulls the lid up, I was going to jump him. I prepared every muscle in my body for this. I needed them all if I was going to do this and get away at the same time. I was ready for him to open it when a voice interrupted him.

"Hey guys! There's been a murder on the other side of town! Apparently he made his way over there!" One of the guards scoffed.

"How'd he do that? I'm sure he came through here!"

"Apparently he's an elusive one. Come on, we've got to hurry if we're going to catch him!"

"Of course! Let's go men!" The all ran off together in union and for the first time in a long time, everything was silent all around me. I could hear my heart thumping and the adrenaline that was running through me was beginning to subside.

That's when the full weight of what I had done hit me again.

I knocked over the trash can and forced myself out of it. I got myself moderately clean while I leaned against the alley wall.

So, Ganondorf had used my whole chase as a distraction to kill someone else. It was clever, to say the least. I couldn't get angry though. Was I any better? I had just killed two men in cold blood! There was no way that that could be forgiven.

I began to feel depressed and I gave way to tears one last time before going back to where my fairy was waiting.

* * *

**Author's note: This is my first fanfiction story. Any constructive critism is welcomed and appreciated.**

**Well, this chapter came up a lot quicker than I thought it would. I was sitting there writing it when all of a sudden, I had an epiphany on how exactly I wanted it to go. So, I just sat there and wrote it all day. I hope you guys enjoy it!**

**So, what'd ya think? Do you really think that's really Link's plan or does he have something else up his sleeve? **

**Please Review!!!**


	12. What I don't need

**Chapter 12**

I never thought walking down the street could be so difficult. The current night's events were still burned into my mind and I had a feeling that they would remain there forever. Each step was heavy and each person I passed felt like they were staring at me with disgust. Maybe all this was just in my head, but it may have been really happening. Either way, I definitely felt like I deserved it.

I was just a few blocks away from the house my fairy was waiting for me in, but I stopped and began to lean against a stone cold wall. People gave me strange looks, but I didn't pay them any mind. This was probably going to be necessary.

The very day I met my fairy, she told me she could read my emotions. I knew from the moment she told me that, that it was going to be something I would have to find a way to counter. So, naturally, I learned to control myself a lot better. After an event like that, it was important to be as calm as possible.

The only thing I could think of that could make my plan go awry was the fact that I didn't know what kind of distance my fairy needed to be from me to read my emotions. When a fairy was partnered, could she feel her partners emotions no matter the distance? Or, would that ability go away as soon as I was out of sight?

I had overlooked this earlier and I was about to find out if that mistake was going to cost me. If she had felt any of my true emotions at the moment, there would certainly be questioning and I couldn't have that.

My heartbeat was returning to normal and my breathing became more relaxed. My inner anger, confusion, and regret were all subsiding and I began to feel at peace. As soon as I felt composed enough, I pushed myself away from the wall and continued my trek to my fairy.

I was now at the front door. Pausing in front of it now, I felt a strange foreboding feeling rise in the pits of my stomach. I let it take me for a second, wondering if I had any good reason to be fearing the rest of the night. The worst has already passed, I convinced myself. How could my night get any worse than_ that_?

Opening the door, I was expecting to be rushed by all its inhabitants, but I was met with emptiness. The area was dark and nobody was in sight. There wasn't even the faint glow of a pissed off fairy coming to greet me. This was a bit surprising, to say the least.

I lowered my eyebrows and sharpened my gaze, trying to pierce the darkness that was illuminating the room and see past it, hoping to see the truth behind this situation. As far as I could tell, there wasn't anything to see in the this room. I continued forward and took a peak into the other rooms, without leaving this one.

In most rooms I checked, it seemed as if most things were in disarray. It was as if they had all just dropped what they were doing and left. Even the servants weren't here. It wasn't the time they were usually dismissed, so where were they?

It was so unlikely that it could almost be considered impossible, but I decided to check the upper rooms to see if anyone had decided to go to bed early. It was especially unlikely that my fairy would be in her room, due the fact that I wasn't there. If anything, its more likely that she was out in the city or even back at the castle looking for me.

Either way, I decided to check the rooms anyway. My room and my fairy's, were at the very end of the hall and the last one I'd check. As it turned out, I was right and every single room I checked was empty.

It was now my room's turn and I chose to get this over with quickly. I opened the door and, as I expected, it was empty. I sighed and immediately felt a sense of hopelessness wash over me. I couldn't even find a stupid fairy, could I do anything right?

I walked over to the bed and threw myself on top of it. I laid there for a while, thinking over the past few hours, on how wrong they had turned out. It was definitely a failure. Looking back, nothing I ever did turned out right. From my moment of birth onward, I couldn't think of a single _important_ event that had gone "according to plan".

I was pretty pathetic and for some reason that made me laugh. I was the chosen hero of the Goddesses! To think that they couldn't have picked someone else! I thought Nayru was the Goddess of Wisdom? Surely she could have picked someone better, right?

I continued to laugh and, if anyone had seen me, they might have thought that I was in a very good mood. In reality though, I was dead on the inside and contemplating giving up. I knew that wasn't an option though.

I still had an ambition.

I was going to get the Triforce and become powerful. Once I had that, I wouldn't need to be afraid of anything. I had told Ganondorf that I would let him have the Triforce, but, in all honesty, that had been a lie. I had an entirely different reason for leading him to the Triforce.

The Temple of Time, the temple that holds the Sacred Realm, that would be the battle field where Ganondorf and I would fight to the death. The battle field where our dreams would collide and whoever won out, would get the Triforce.

When I saw Ganondorf, I saw myself in a strange way. The same insatiable lust for power. Was he afraid too? If so, what was he afraid of? If not, what was it that drove that lust for power? I was fascinated with Ganondorf and I wanted to give him the same chance as I had to get a hold of the Triforce.

Besides, something inside me wanted to defeat Ganondorf with my own power, not with a handicap like the Triforce. I wanted to drive Ganondorf into the ground with my own skill, especially since he made such a fool of me this evening. He would definitely be a worthy opponent and I was looking forward to it.

I began to close my eyes and drift off into sleep, but then a faint sound entered my ears. I could hear footsteps. I lifted my head and immediately pinpointed where the sound was coming from. It was coming from outside.

I jumped off my bed, jogged to the window, and immediately peered through it onto the street. To be honest, I was expecting Malon's family to be the ones coming down the street, but I was wrong.

As it turns out, a young couple were making their way down the street. It definitely wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that something was deeply wrong. Their steps had an extra sway in them that made it look like they were almost too weak to walk. In any other situation, I would have said they were drunk, but this event brought something back to my attention.

Ganondorf had murdered someone in this area. I couldn't believe that it had slipped my mind, but apparently it had. I must have been too disoriented from everything. I would have pondered this further, but they began to speak, halting my own thought process.

"Who? Who could have done this and why?" Her voice was surprisingly calm and presented more of a somber tone then I would have expected.

The male who was holding her loosened his grip on her once the words were spoken and it was pretty obvious he was thinking of a way to console her.

I smiled. For some reason it was a comfort for me to know that someone else was having a bad day besides me, although, I knew that those thoughts were wrong. I shouldn't be enjoying that fact at all, but I couldn't help but let the smile creep onto my face.

Finally, words came out of his mouth, but I could immediately tell he hadn't found any consoling words yet. "I don't know." He paused once again, but it was easy to see he was determined to keep this one short. "None of this makes sense. What are the Royal Guards doing? It's been months and yet they haven't even been able to take care of a simple murderer!" The man stopped, his breathing coming out much quicker than before, his heart rate was obviously accelerating.

The girl seemed to take this as her turn to speak, and said, "He was so kind." The words were mumbled, but it was a simple task for my ears to pick up what she was saying. "He always knew what to say. It was as if he could peer into your mind and immediately see what was wrong. I just don't understand. Who could ever kill such a good and understanding man?" It was pretty obvious to me that she hadn't paid any attention to what the male had said previously, but was instead holding a conversation with herself. Seeing that, my smile immediately faded. It had occurred to me that she was in a great deal of pain due to whichever person just got murdered, but for some reason I didn't get it. Only now, for some reason, did it ever click and I felt ashamed of myself.

Turning away from the couple, I sat myself down next to the window and slammed my head against the wall. Although I was trying not to eavesdrop on them anymore, what the male now said caught my interest.

"More importantly, what are the goddesses I bow down to everyday doing? Their very own people are being killed one by one and they aren't even lifting a finger to help us! It's like they don't even care! How can I bow down to someone who doesn't even care about their own people?" Those words hit me hard, but I didn't understand why. For some reason, they made me angry, as if they were insulting me instead of the goddesses.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one feeling the anger. It was clear that the man was having a fit of rage, while the woman, who was now paying attention to what was going on around her, tried her best to stop him. It didn't take long for her to stop him and I could soon hear their footsteps fading away in the distance.

My head too fogged to be able to understand anything clearly, I decided to forget everything around me for a second and try to find an objective. Closing my eyes helped me to focus and soon I was blinded by own will, only listening to the faint sound of what was left of nature in this urban area.

Finally, I remembered I already had an objective and that was to continue looking for my fairy. Picking myself up from the floor, I looked onto the empty streets and, once I was sure no one was around, I jumped.

I landed onto the street in a roll and, using the roll's momentum, broke out into a sprint. I didn't know why I was running, but I guess it didn't matter. I already had an idea on where they might be, I just had to get there.

My theory was, that they were at the scene of the murder, probably checking it out for some reason. Logically speaking, with the kind of schedule they had, where else could they be at a time like this? Also, going along with that type of thinking, if I went the opposite direction the couple went, I'd end up at least somewhere near the murder area. It definitely wasn't a perfect theory and had a lot of places where I could be wrong, but it was the best I had at the moment, so I went with it.

Evidently, best guesses were enough in this situation and I could soon make out the glow of my fairy along with several other people in the distance. My fairy seemed to sense my presence and I could immediately see her make her way over to me.

That was probably when I first began to realize how bad the situation was.

My fairy's flight pattern was different and comparable to when the Great Deku Tree died. It lacked her usual enthusiasm and bounce. Seeing this, my sprint decelerated into a walk, my arms losing all feeling and bouncing uselessly with my stride.

My fairy finally reached me, but I wasn't paying very much attention to her. My eyes were focused solely on finding out who the royal guards were carrying away; the victim in this case. The fairy didn't seem to notice this, but if she did, she didn't care. She spoke to me anyway, probably hoping I'd hear her.

"Link, I don't know how to say this, but Malon's uncle was killed." I could hear faint mumbles coming from my fairy now, or was I just tuning her out? I couldn't tell nor did it matter to me. All I could think about was Malon. I didn't see her in the crowd with her family, but I was determined to find her. Guilt seemed to replace my blood and it coursed through me continuously.

Finally, my fairy raised her voice just loud enough to be heard, saying, "Link, we have to leave now. Time is very important right now and we can't waste any."

"I have to find Malon," I retaliated.

"Finding Malon won't help her right now. I know comforting your friend may seem like the right thing to do right now, but we have to look at the bigger picture. This monster is still around and he needs to be stopped. Comforting Malon won't do that."

"So, what do you expect me to do? Just leave her like that?" I heard my fairy sigh as she realized I was going to be difficult.

"Link, Malon was sent home with Talon. No one wanted a girl her age to see this. It depends on Talon when she finds out."

"He could have told her now! Can't we just-"

"Link, listen to yourself! You didn't even care about consoling the other families that had victims until now. What makes Malon so special? You're the hero! We have duties we have to perform!"

"I know that, but Malon's a friend! That's what makes her 'special'!"

"You can't just treat someone different than others. It isn't right. Especially for the hero. We can't just show someone special treatment. If you're going to comfort one, comfort them all."

"Are you trying to say I shouldn't care? If we go by that philosophy than that means I shouldn't take any action at all anymore!"

"What I'm trying to say is that you should care, but from a distance. Don't get too involved. If you do, you'll just create weakness, like now! Your special relationship with that girl is beginning to screw up your perspective on this mission! You're beginning to lose sight of what's important and that's getting all the spiritual stones. Do you understand?"

Her strong words penetrated my thoughts more than I realized, but all I could do was nod my head. Her words sounded a lot like what I'd tell myself, but for some reason, that warning hadn't reached my ears when it came to her. She'd become a weakness and I knew I had to eradicate it soon. Maybe this wasn't exactly what my fairy had meant, but that didn't matter. My fairy's and my own goal were very different anyway.

"Ok then," my fairy began. Now that she had me focusing again, she motioned for us to distance ourselves from the scene of the crime. Continuing, she said, "We need to get out of Castle Town, quickly. If that murder is any indicator, I'd say our time to collect the stones is running short." I nodded once again and we both ran off for the exit.

While we ran, I asked, "What makes you think our time is running short?" I had to dodge and weave through many people while making that statement, which isn't as easy as it may seem.

"I'm surprised you didn't notice. Are you sure you can't figure it out?" I rolled my eyes as I spun around someone carrying his groceries, probably home.

"Just tell me. I don't need you belittling me right now." My fairy didn't include any sly comment, which was, of course, unusual, but instead went straight to answering my question.

"Well, it all has to do with the location of the murder. Where were all the other murders besides this one done?"

"The back alleys."

"Exactly! And which side of town are the back alleys located?"

"The west." As soon as those words left my lips, I knew where my fairy was going with this. "I see what you're saying." My fairy chuckled lightly, without the slightest sound of amusement in her voice.

"So, you're finally catching on."

"Yeah, what you're saying is that since most of the murders occurred in the west side of town, the poor side, now that a murder has been committed on the east side, the prominent side, he's building up confidence. You're thinking that he must have made some sort of breakthrough if he's bold enough to attack the nobles and I agree. Murdering the peasants isn't treated as such a high priority as when a noble gets killed. So, in theory, doing that is very risky, but he's doing it anyway and it just started tonight. It makes a lot of sense, in my opinion."

Saying all of that while keeping up with my fairy and avoiding a straight-on collision with someone was _definitely very difficult _to do.

"Correct, Link." I could see the lowered drawbridge and immediately picked up the pace. Judging by the time it was, which was late evening, it wouldn't stay open for very long. We got across the wooden bridge when we stopped to catch our breath. Well, at least I did. I wasn't sure about my fairy...

As soon as I had enough breath to speak, which wasn't long, I asked, "So, what do you suppose we do now that we're out of Castle Town?"

"Well, Zelda said the other two stones were with the Gorons and the Zoras, right? If what she said is true then the closest stone would be the stone with the Gorons." I took a deep breath in as I asked my next question.

"Do you know where the Gorons are?" My fairy made a very obvious scoff.

"Of course I know where that is! Who do you think I am?"

"Whatever. Just get on with it."

"They live on Death Mountain."

"That sounds like a lovely place."

"Shut up. That's such an old joke. Anyway, if you look toward the east you can see the mountain. That'll be where we're headed. There's a small settlement down there named Kakariko Village. We can use that village as a resting area." I began to think about my fairy's plan, while wondering if it really was the best course of action.

"Is there any other reason for going to that place first? Because if not, then I'd say we should go for the farthest one first and work our way back to Castle Town. I think It'd be more practical that way."

"Well, it's a good thing I do have another reason for us going for this stone first then."

"And what would that be?"

"Don't interrupt me and maybe you'd find out!"

"Fine then. I won't"

"Good. Anyway, my other reason for going for this stone first is that we could kill two birds with one stone this way." My fairy was interrupted from continuing by the whine of grinding metal and the creaking of old wood. Looking over, I could see that the bridge was being lifted, cutting anyone off from entering.

Trying to keep us focused on the subject, I turned away from my fairy and asked, "and how's that?" My fairy tore her eyes away from the closing bridge and made a tiny coughing sound, which I assumed was her clearing her puny throat.

"The Village of Kakariko is well known for a few reasons. The reason I'm focused on is the fact that Hyrule buries their dead there. Of course, that mostly includes people higher up on the social ladder, but I know for a fact that we'll find all the murder victims buried there as well."

"But if what you said is true, why would they bury anyone from the west side there? Aren't they all peasants?"

"That's true, but they're not normal peasants are they? They were murdered and that of course makes everyone in that area nervous. If the King just ignored the situation, what do you think would happen?" I took a second to think this over, but I had a feeling I knew where this was going. I also knew I didn't have all the facts yet, so I gave the best answer I could.

"Well, they would all feel insecure and begin to feel contempt toward the King, right?"

"Exactly! The King knows this and so, in order to not lose their trust, is giving them all an honorary burial. There is also another reason they're all being moved to Kakariko Graveyard and that is the fact that they would have a much better chance of figuring out what happened to them there. You want to know why?" My eyes traveled downward as I began to feel a little incapable once again. How is it that she could know all this for sure?

"Well, yeah." My fairy hesitated for a second and my eyes drifted back towards her, wondering if she had known what just went through my head.

"Umm, well, the people that run the Graveyard aren't exactly normal. You see, not only do they take care of the dead people, but they are also trained to figure out the cause of death. There's no doubt in my mind that the King would want that." I nodded my head. It would definitely be a wise decision on the King's part to try to figure out how those murders were committed. Looking back on the day I found that woman brutally killed on my first night in Castle Town, I could definitely see why they'd need professionals to figure out the cause of death. What in the world could tear a woman up like that?

"So, why do the Graveyard Keepers need to be able to determine the cause of death anyway? Shouldn't that belong to a different department?" My fairy thought about this for a second before she bobbed her body in a shrugging motion.

"I would naturally think so too, but I get the feeling the current King is more of a lazy one that doesn't put much thought into things. He probably figured that since the important dead people go there anyway it would be better to put their investigation teams in charge of that as well. His own way of killing two birds with one stone, I guess?" I gave my fairy a light smirk.

"I guess its time to take advantage of that, huh?" In actuality, I wasn't feeling like smirking at all, but I couldn't let my fairy notice that. Casually, I began to walk in the direction of the mountain. My fairy got the message quickly and was by my side in seconds.

While we walked, I asked, "So, how'd you know that stuff anyway?"

"What do you mean?" I shrugged as I kicked a rock along the road.

"That information seemed to be way too detailed to have merely been made up on the go." My fairy let loose a light chuckle.

"Well, to be honest, doing all that snooping around inside the castle really gives you the opportunity to learn some interesting things."

"You found all that out when I had you learn things about the castle's interior?"

"Yeah, pretty much. People talk and it was a nice opportunity to learn things. It seemed like the right thing to do." I shrugged while walking.

"Well, it was, but why didn't you tell me anything about this stuff?"

"I didn't think it was especially crucial to the current mission. It's better not to bother you with details that might distract you from our goal." My hands found their way to my belt and I grabbed it, all the while releasing a heavy sigh. For some reason it bothered me to know she withheld information from me. It was hypocritical, but I couldn't help but wish she would just tell me everything.

"Link, there's one more thing I should tell you." I looked at her and let my annoyance become slightly visible. What else could she need to tell me?

"What is it?"

"Well, remember what we said about the murders making the civilians feel contempt toward the King?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"A little while after that knowledge came to my attention, I began to think. Could Ganondorf know what his actions are doing to the civilian's relationship with the king? Once I thought of that, I began to try to put myself in his shoes and think. I thought about it for a while and soon all of his actions began to make more sense to me. In particular those murders. At first glance, wouldn't murdering all those people seem like a bad idea? Especially if you wanted to take over the country? It didn't make sense! All that would do is draw unnecessary attention to yourself if caught and it would put the Royal Guard on high alert. Definitely not what someone in his position would want, right?" As she said that, I immediately knew what kind of conclusion she was coming to and I agreed that it made sense.

"But that's only at first glance," I continued for her. "If you look deeper, you can see all the effects it would have on the people. Anger, fear, and distrust would grow like a wild fire. Most of it would all be geared toward the people in charge also, namely the King and his Royal Guards. If the murderer isn't caught, then those emotions only grow until, finally, their relationship is in shambles." I paused as my foot got caught in a small hole on the road, causing me to stumble a little.

"Exactly the type of situation Ganondorf would want," my fairy finished for me. As I dusted myself off I nodded my head.

"In that type of situation it would be easy for Ganondorf to manipulate the people and rally support. If people believe he can bring change, they'll hop on his bandwagon without a second thought and the King will be powerless to do anything about it."

"Yeah," my fairy started. "With that in mind, you can really see how clever Ganondorf is. I mean, just with all that you can see how well planned his takeover is. He's slowly working on the civilians and even working on the upperclassmen. Even now, he might have supporters that we don't even know about. With this in mind, Link, we need to be careful on who we trust. Anyone can be a potential enemy, got it?" I looked up at the night sky and just nodded my head. "Also, that means we can't hide anything from each other, right? I mean, if we can't trust each other then Ganondorf has already won." I tried to put on my best smile, but I'm sure my fairy saw through it. I was calm compared to how I was earlier, but my emotions were still a mess. I was hoping my fairy would chalk it all up to Malon's uncle's murder and not to anything else.

"I agree, Navi. We need to be able to tell each other everything."

"Well, I-" she seemed to find trouble putting together this sentence and that raised my curiosity. "I think I owe you an apology, Link."

Raising an eyebrow, I asked, "And why's that?"

"I haven't exactly been...a good partner to you."

"How's that?"

"I don't trust you, Link." The words came out plain and simple and I felt a sharp jabbing in my stomach; something reminiscent of getting stabbed and being left to die. "To tell you the truth, I've never trusted you. I've done my best to be a good partner, but I'm afraid that whenever you leave my side for even just a second, you'll do something regrettable. I know this isn't the kind of feelings I should feel towards you, but I can't help it and I need to apologize."

"Navi, it's alright. I've done some things I'm not proud of and you have every right to be untrusting towards me."

"No, Link. Like I said earlier, if we can't trust each other, this partnership won't work and we won't be able to protect Hyrule. While you have done some things that neither of us are proud of, all of those mistakes are partly my fault."

"They are not-"

"Yes they are. You're only 12 years old, Link. How can anyone expect a 12 year old to make any of the correct decisions in this type of situation? You've got a lot of weight on your shoulders and I'm supposed to be lightening the load, not throwing it all on you. That's my duty and from now on, I'm going to trust you on your decisions." My stunned face was probably embarrassingly obvious.

"Navi, I, uh, I don't know what to say..."

"This is your mission, Link. I'm going to let you take the lead from now on. My job is to be your support and that's what I'll be." I grinned.

"Then I think we should go to Zora's domain first..." She gave an annoyed sigh.

"Oh come on! Don't just discard my last decision just out of spite like that!"

"Don't worry about it so much, little fairy. I was just messing with you! We're still going on to Kakariko Village!" My fairy chuckled.

"That's good to hear." We continued to walk and I was hoping for silence, but not long after her last statement, my fairy opened her mouth again. "But, just so you know, I'll still voice my opinion on every matter! Just because you're in charge doesn't mean I'm just gonna sit here quietly, you know." I rolled my eyes.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you." My fairy just laughed lightly and I couldn't believe she had been so easy. I didn't even have to do much and my fairy was already taking steps to eradicate her mistrust in me. Her mistrust was one of my biggest obstacles and she was neatly taking care of it for my herself. She was blinded by that sense of duty and I was certainly grateful for that.

I looked up as we walked and began to stare at the moon. It was beautiful and made me smile while I reflected on my day. At first glance, it had been a failure and I could still feel my guilt from earlier, but the fact was I was now moving onto the second spiritual stone, my fairy was giving up her control, and I had grown stronger.

Today had been more successful than I had previously imagined.

The image flashed in my head. The guard's slit throat and his blood, colliding with my knees. It was so sudden and quick I tripped, landing flat on my face.

"Link! You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Didn't see that rock is all..." I forced myself up and continued walking. This was going to be a problem, I realized. I was still not able to forget my feelings. I had to though. If this continued, I would fail and that would be the end of me. I need to bury my feelings. They're just a distraction. The path I'm taking is not easy and to be successful, I can't have any needless distractions.

As we continued to walk, I closed my eyes. I was going to disown my emotions. I didn't need them.

Not where I was going anyway.

* * *

******Author's Note: ****This is my first fan-fiction story. Any constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated.**

**********Wow...I can't believe it took me this long to get this chapter out! I'm not gonna offer any excuses on why it's out so late, but I will say that I'm gonna finish this story no matter how long it takes, so don't think it's over till I say it is! Whoo! **

**********Btw, if you want to hear my excuses on why its out so late, just send me a private message and I'll be sure to answer! :)**

**********Plz review! **


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